When Skyrim first came out, the gaming world skyrocketed all the way to the moon. It was this title that put an end to your social life and made you forget about your responsibilities. The base game was extensive enough that you could play it for hundreds of hours, without seeing all the game had to offer, and without growing tired of it. Could an experience like this be, somehow, improved in any way?

Yes. Yes, it could. Mods entered the scene, and the crowd went wild. These free, user-created expansions turned Skyrim into a universe of endless possibilities. If you were to play all the available mods that exist, a lifetime might not be enough. With that in mind, some mods added so much to the game that hard drives might have developed a grudge.

RELATED: Skyrim: Speaking With Silence Quest Walkthrough

Updated February 14th, 2022 by Quinton O'Connor: It would be easy to pile our list high with, quite literally, 15 fan-made texture packs and call it a day. All of them compete for the top spot in size, and don't get us wrong — they're worthy feats, one and all. Our list eschews that approach in favor of adding some of the largest content-providing mods, like Beyond Skyrim - Bruma. We've also included graphical overhauls, of course, and in celebration of Skyrim: Anniversary Edition, returning readers should note some swell newcomers.

15 Beyond Skyrim - Bruma (2.4 GB)

According to the developer of this mod, Beyond Skyrim - Bruma is "larger in size and scope than the Dragonborn DLC." Regardless of comparisons, this mod does indeed add a whole new region to explore, which is what Skyrim is all about.

Bruma is the northernmost county in Cyrodiil, so expect lots of snow, as well as new quests, dungeons, and weapons. Moreover, the production that went into making this mod is surprising, considering original dialogue was recorded by professional and semi-professional voice actors. Considering all this, the download for this mod is rather small, requiring only 2.4 GB.

14 The Shire (2.5 GB)

Any Skyrim players wanting to combine their love of Lord of The Rings with their latest playthrough should look no further than this Skyrim mod for The Shire. It's clear to see how much effort has been put into this mod, first published in 2017, with everything from a new world to explore, to your own Hearthfire-esque hobbit home to relax in.

The corresponding quest that comes with this mod also adds an extra 25+ hours of enjoyable gameplay, as well as over 6,000 fully-voiced lines of dialogue.

13 Auri-el White-Gold Tower (2.6 GB)

This mod from 2018 adds an extra piece of architecture to the Skyrim skyline - an enormous elven tower, levitating above the ground. According to the developer, the mod is “built according to the architecture of the snow elves." It's not exactly the more lore-friendly mod ever made, but it sure does look spiffy.

The elven tower isn’t just for aesthetics, though. The building can be entered and explored, with multiple rooms featuring statues of Skyrim’s many deities (known as the Divines), as well as the most breathtaking view of Skyrim from the very top of the tower.

12 Skyrim High Quality German Voices (2.7 GB)

German fans of the Elder Scrolls franchise will be delighted with this mod, which completely replaces all in-game dialogue with high-quality and professional-sounding German voice-acting. The German dialogue is covered not only in the base game, but in the Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn DLCs, too.

Despite completely replacing the rest of the dialogue in Skyrim, the mod's developer promises that it's possible to uninstall with no repercussions to the game's save file or progress. Since the mod is uploaded as separate loose files, it also means it's compatible with all other Skyrim mods.

11 Religious Resources of Tamriel (2.8 GB)

This mod is actually pretty cool. The name sounds like a government-aid program to support religious services in Skyrim, and it does just that. If you walk in most towns, you eventually come around rather bare statues of patrons and worshipped deities. Surely, Talos deserves better than that?

Seriously though, if those grey statues scattered about bother you, think about downloading Religious Resources of Tamriel to add a little spice to your towns. This mod is compatible with everything, according to its creator, and it just needs 2.8 GB of space.

10 The Elder Scrolls V Middle-Earth Redone (3.2 GB)

J.R.R. Tolkien is one of the founding fathers of the fantasy genre. The Lord of The Rings is one of the best narratives in existence, and it's rather easy to imagine Skyrim as an extension of it. After all, who wouldn't love role-playing as Gandalf or Aragorn while exploring the game's mountains, forests, or valleys?

The Elder Scrolls V Middle-Earth Redone, found here, lets any LOTR fan go for a stroll in Middle-Earth. You can travel to Moria, Lothlorien, and more.

9 Septentrional Landscapes LE (3.2 GB)

One of Skyrim's greatest strengths is the freedom of exploration. Few games manage to capture the same travelling feel that so heavily characterizes this game. Septentrional Landscapes, developed for the Legendary Edition of the game, makes venturing even better.

This mod improves landscape textures using 3D scans, which even come in 2K, 4K, and 8K resolutions. Your game will simply look gorgeous if you use this, making Easter egg hunting much more enjoyable since everything looks more organic. You do need two additional mods by the same creator to bring snow and shores the same level of quality, however. Nevertheless, this mod alone requires 3.2 GB of free space.

8 Tel Qahnaar (3.4 GB)

This mods adds a little village inspired by the Telvanni, one of the Great Houses of wizards who have mastered the arcane arts, in the far land of Morrowind. To download this, you'll need 3.4 GB and also the Shadow of Morrowind mod, a prerequisite download.

RELATED: The Elder Scrolls: The History Of Alduin, The World Eater

Overall, if you enjoy adding a little settlement area that's heavily stylized by magic, you should look into getting this mod. Tel Qahnaar also adds a variety of spells and weapons, which are always a plus.

7 Optimized Vanilla Textures (3.5 GB)

You can find some great texture mods for Skyrim that take up little space, especially when it comes to vanilla textures. The download for this particular mod is 3.5 GB, and it doesn't change the look of the game, so why bother with it?

Optimized Vanilla Textures is compatible with any other mod out there, and it simply compresses the game's default textures to make it run better. This is a great mod if you like the way Skyrim looks, and only want to significantly boost its performance.

6 Aka's World Of Weapons (4.5 GB)

Adding more weapons to Skyrim is always fun, especially if you have a personal preference when it comes to swords. If you happen to have a special regard for Eastern melee weapons, then this mod might be for you.

Aka's World Of Weapons was made to showcase a user's personal creation, which seems to lack some optimization. Because of this, it doesn't come as a surprise that the download file for this mod is 4.5 GB. Although this mod comes with over 30 weapons, it's still a pretty heavy download.

5 Texture Pack Comparison Project (6.5GB)

This painstaking project of comparing real-life photos to tweak in-game textures has resulted in one of the biggest Skyrim mods available on the Nexus Mods website. Texture Pack Comparison Project was last updated in March 2021, so it's great to see that this is still being refreshed.

The cosmetic mod covers everything in the Skyrim world, from NPCs and architecture to clothes, dungeons, weapons, and even clutter that you'd find scattered amongst the homes of Skyrim. This mod is perfect for anyone with a high-performance PC looking for a step-up in their game's overall aesthetic.

4 Anniversary Edition and Creation Club - Everything Upscaled (8.9 GB)

There's a point at which required hard drive space eclipses practical gains, but it doesn't appear that the Skyrim modding community has yet found it. 8.9 GB isn't a lot to ask for if you've purchased Skyrim: Anniversary Edition, the decade-capping celebration that launched back in November 2021.

RELATED: Skyrim: 10 Of The Best Utility Mods, Ranked

Anniversary Edition and Creation Club - Everything Upscaled points a keen eye toward every last piece of bonus goodness that comes with Anniversary Edition, including the hundreds of pieces of Creation Club content. You'll probably want to up the resolution and texture detail for the rest of the game's assets as well, of course, but once you've done so, this big batch of fresh fun will feel right at home.

3 Cleaned Textures - Uncompressed (10.3 GB, 17.7 GB)

Several of the biggest files you can download on Nexus Mods are overhauls to the game's textures. They're all quite nice, but Cleaned Textures - Uncompressed is our favorite of the lot. This mod, downloadable here, basically makes Skyrim look significantly cleaner, since it gets rid of compression artifacts. Because of this, it's only natural that it comes with a hefty download.

Depending on your computer's specs, you might want to hold off on downloading this. If your machine is geared for medium to high-end graphics, and has a consistently reliable processing power, download it by all means. Otherwise, you might notice some performance drops here and there. The mod is available in two versions: one is 10.3 GB, and the other is 17.7 GB. The smaller download will fare better if you care about having the best performance.

2 Enderal: Forgotten Stories (16 GB)

The best mods add replayability to your games. Even better mods add wholly new content to be experienced. Enderal: Forgotten Stories is a perfect example of both phenomena in action. This is basically a DLC for Skyrim.

It adds a new land to explore, with its own lore and unique enemies, new quests, and you know, we'll say it, a new game entirely. In fact, this mod also features original voice dialogue professionally produced and performed. Enderal won the Best Fan Creation award at the 2016 Game Awards. You can download this amazing mod on Steam, as long as you have 16 GB of free space.

1 Disparity and Diversity - Diversified Individual Race Textures (17.6 GB)

Skyrim's biggest mod to date comes as an overhaul to players' character skins and textures for all individual races in Skyrim. Available in up to 4K resolutions, the mod's developer describes the mod as giving "each non-beast race unique textures to give them a more varied appearance and to better reflect each race’s characteristics".

This mod will change everything on the vanilla race character models, from body hair to skin textures. As the file size is extremely large, this mod is reserved for players with a large amount of free space on their hard drives, who want to bring an extra element of realism to the game.

NEXT: Skyrim: Beginner's Guide To Modding On PC And Console