There are some truly head-scratching statistics to be found in video games, and a Skyrim player just shone a light on a particularly disturbing one. Few releases have shaped the landscape of video games so strongly as the fifth Elder Scrolls title has, effectively kickstarting a trend that has lasted for over a decade in its simple-yet-effective implementation of Bethesda's bread and butter: the open world. Many critics have argued that Skyrim's sandbox was wide, but extremely shallow – while at first glance this appears to be true, Skyrim is a game of hidden depth that is approachable on the surface, and this combination has been the key to its success.

One of the easy ways Skyrim lures its players is through character statistics. Wedged conveniently between the menu and the quest log, this tab in its user interface lets people analyze the way their playthrough has shaped up. From Largest Bounties to Favorite Spells, and even Nirnroot Found, it boasts some particularly obscure statistics that players can subconsciously decide to focus on. One of these is not like the others, however, as Skyrim also happens to track the amount of Bunnies Slaughtered.

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A player named Bean_cult came across this bizarre statistic, and perhaps rightly asked why it even existed in the first place. Their question was posted on the official Skyrim community on Reddit, where it opened a surprisingly huge discussion on the ethics of slaying fictional rabbits. Whether it's a Monty Python reference or completely original, rabbits in Skyrim are surprisingly hard to kill as even a high Sneak skill can alert them to the player's presence.

As evidenced by the discussion in the thread, some Skyrim players seem to go out of their way to kill both rabbits and foxes, while others find it distasteful and senseless. Curiously, the only rabbit kill that doesn't count towards the statistic is the ghost bunny encountered during the Hircine quests in Skyrim – meaning that the game is clever enough to recognize that a spectral rabbit is already dead.

With the rumors of the next Elder Scrolls game being set in Hammerfell, Bethesda might have an opportunity to carry over this specific statistic and give it a regional spin. Fennec foxes would no doubt be abundant in the arid landscapes of the Redguard province and might serve a role in the game's virtual fauna similar to Skyrim's rabbits. Whether that ends up being the case remains to be seen.

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim - Anniversary Edition is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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