You finally bought it. That massive RPG you’ve been eyeing for months. You check the back of the box—or more likely, the Steam page—and see people talking about a hundred-hour journey. But then you look at your own clock. Twelve hours in and you’re still in the starter area picking flowers. Why?
How long to beat a game is arguably the most subjective metric in all of entertainment. It’s not like a movie. You can’t just sit there for 120 minutes and know you’re done. In gaming, the finish line moves based on how you breathe, think, and get distracted. Honestly, the way we measure game length is kind of broken. We rely on community-sourced averages from sites like HowLongToBeat, which are amazing tools, but they don't account for the "distraction factor."
Every gamer has a different "pacing profile." Some people are sprinters. They ignore the side quests, skip the dialogue, and hunt the credits like a predator. Others are what I call "tourists." They want to see every blade of grass. When you ask how long to beat a game like The Witcher 3 or Elden Ring, you aren't asking for a number. You're asking for a vibe check.
The Myth of the "Average" Playtime
Averages are liars. If one person beats a game in 10 hours and another takes 90, the average is 50. But almost nobody actually finishes at the 50-hour mark.
Take The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. The "Main Story" clock usually sits around 50 to 60 hours. But have you met a Zelda fan lately? Most people I know didn't even touch the final boss until they hit the 150-hour mark because they were too busy building orbital strike platforms out of wooden planks and green glue. The how long to beat metric for open-world games is basically a "choose your own adventure" situation.
Complexity matters too. A platformer like Celeste has a relatively stable completion time for the main story—maybe 8 to 10 hours. But the "Completionist" run? That can soar to 40 hours because of the brutal B-Sides and C-Sides. The gap between "just finishing" and "seeing everything" is a chasm that many players don't realize they're jumping into.
Why your clock is different than theirs
There are actual, mechanical reasons why you might be slower or faster than the internet average:
- Difficulty settings: Playing on "Death March" or "Hardcore" naturally inflates your time through death loops and cautious play.
- Idle time: Does the game pause the clock when you go make a sandwich? Not always. Some games keep that timer ticking in the menu, bloating your stats.
- Skill gaps: Let’s be real. If you’re stuck on a boss in Sekiro for three days, your how long to beat stat is going to look a lot different than a soulslike veteran’s.
- Platform differences: Loading times on an old HDD versus a modern NVMe SSD can shave minutes—or hours—off a total playthrough over the course of a long game.
Understanding the "Main Story" vs. "Completionist" Divide
When you're looking at data for how long to beat a title, you usually see three categories. Main Story, Main + Extras, and Completionist.
The "Main + Extras" category is usually the most honest. It’s how most humans actually play. You do the story, but you stop to help the local village or upgrade your sword. For a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, the main story is roughly 50 hours. But the "Main + Extras" often doubles that. If you’re going for the 100% Completionist run, you’re looking at 180+ hours of hunting legendary animals and finding hidden dreamcatchers.
It’s about the "Golden Path." Designers create a path that leads you to the end, but they litter the sides of the road with shiny objects. If you have high "distraction susceptibility," you can throw the internet's average out the window.
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The Role of Speedrunning
We can't talk about completion times without mentioning the speedrunners. These are the outliers who break the data. Someone might beat Starfield in under an hour using glitches and frame-perfect movements. While these times are technically part of the "how long to beat" ecosystem, they represent a different sport entirely. It’s like comparing a daily commute to a Formula 1 race. For the average consumer, these numbers are fun trivia, but they shouldn't influence whether you think a game is "worth the money."
Is "Longer" Actually Better?
There’s this weird trend in gaming where we equate "hours of content" with "value for money." It’s the $1-per-hour rule. If I pay $70, I want 70 hours.
This is a trap.
Some of the best gaming experiences are short. Portal is about 3 to 4 hours long. It’s perfect. If Portal was 40 hours long, it would be a nightmare. When we obsess over how long to beat a game, we sometimes ignore the quality of those hours. A tight, 8-hour masterpiece like Resident Evil 4 Remake often feels more rewarding than a 100-hour map-clearing exercise that feels like a second job.
Developers know we look at these numbers. Sometimes, they "pad" games to make the how long to beat stats look better on paper. They add fetch quests. They make you walk across the map five times. They level-gate the story so you have to grind for XP. It’s worth asking: do you actually want the game to be longer, or do you just want it to be good?
How to Estimate Your Personal Playtime
If you want to know how long a game will take you specifically, don't just look at the top number. Follow this logic:
- Check the "Main Story" time on a tracker.
- If you like to explore every corner, multiply that number by 1.5.
- If you are a trophy hunter, double it.
- If you’re a parent or a busy professional who plays in 30-minute bursts, add another 20% for "re-orientation time"—the time it takes to remember what you were doing.
A game like Baldur’s Gate 3 is the ultimate outlier. The devs at Larian Studios have mentioned the script is massive. The permutations are endless. You could "beat" it in 60 hours, or you could still be in Act 1 at the 60-hour mark because you decided to talk to every single squirrel in the woods. (Pro tip: Talk to the squirrels).
Actionable Steps for Managing Your Backlog
Knowing how long it takes to finish a game helps you manage your "pile of shame." If you only have two hours of gaming time a week, starting a 100-hour JRPG means you won't finish it for a year. That’s a recipe for burnout.
Audit your time. Before buying, check the median playtime. If you're in a busy season of life, aim for "short and sweet" titles under 15 hours. Save the epics for vacations or long weekends.
Ignore the pressure. Don't feel like you have to hit the "Completionist" mark. If you've seen the credits and you're satisfied, you've beaten the game. Your time is the only currency you can't get back.
Use playstyles as a guide. If a game has a massive gap between "Main Story" and "Main + Extras," it usually means the side content is significant. If the gap is small, the game is likely a linear experience. Use that to decide if it fits your current mood.
Ultimately, the clock doesn't matter as much as the experience. Whether you finish in 5 hours or 500, the only "correct" time to beat a game is when you feel like you've seen enough. Stop worrying about the "average" and just play at your own speed. The game isn't going anywhere.