According to Bethesda Game Studios' official Twitter feed, over 13 million Skyrim mods have been downloaded via the recently launched Steam Workshop service. Specifically, the Tweet says that "Skyrim Steam Workshop downloads are over 13.6 million. PC mods FTW."
In case you haven't had a chance to try it out yet, Steam Workshop is a service that makes it easy to install (and uninstall) PC gaming mods without the hassle of actually having to delve into a game's file system and set things up manually. Originally conceived as a way of introducing user created content into Valve's own Team Fortress 2, it was recently revamped to support Skyrim.
13.6 million is a big number, and it definitely proves that modding is alive and well in the gaming community, but it's also worth noting that this number still only represents a fraction of all the Skyrim mod downloads out there. Other venues, like Skyrim Nexus, offer not only mod downloads, but also their own clients for easy installation.
Still, it's great to see that developers are lending their support to make modding even simpler. What was once a hair pulling exercise for hardcore gamers is now something anyone with a decent PC can enjoy, and we owe Bethesda and Valve a big thank you for their awesome support of the modding community. Now, if we can just get a little bit of the joy to our console bound brethren...
