Video games take different amounts of time to finish depending on the content and the activities players do in them. Some are very short, but some are long and will take days, even weeks to finish. Below is our list of the longest video games ever. The play times mentioned below focus primarily on the main story and side content and do not include the amount of time needed to complete every little activity (looking at you, Witcher 3 question marks).
What are the longest video games ever made?
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (40 Hours)
Oblivion has a main story that you can finish in around 30 to 40 hours, depending on your gaming skills. If you finish this game too quickly, however, you’ll miss lore-adding side quests. These take some time to finish and could bring your total playing time well beyond the 100-hour mark.
This game, despite being a single-player offline RPG, boasts enough content to eat up hundreds of hours depending on your play style. You can finish it quickly or spend a lot of time collecting weapons, armor, and spells; completing the questlines of four different Guilds—Fighters, Thieves, Mages, and Dark Brotherhood; or simply immerse yourself in its massive open world that never fails to entice players looking for adventure. It’s your call.
Rainbow Moon (40+ Hours)
This indie RPG boasts of a storyline that will run for more than 40 hours, depending on the player’s skill and pace, but completing the game will take upwards of 100 hours. There are a myriad of things to do, including exploration and character development. The game itself will have you spending a lot of time choosing whether to sell the items you found in order to buy better weapons and equipment or simply use those items to upgrade your existing gear. This, on top of the battles that will require you to plan your attacks carefully, easily consumes a lot of your time.
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain (46 Hours)
While it’s not like the usual Metal Gear Solid title, MGS5: The Phantom Pain still has strong support from its fans. You can finish the main story in about 46 hours, but because there's lots to do, you might not notice that over 150 hours have passed by. This is Hideo Kojima’s last MGS title before leaving Konami, so give it a shot if you haven’t yet.
This game bridges the gap between the original Metal Gear from the 1980s and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker from 2010, helping players understand why Big Boss became an "antagonist" when he used to be a good guy. It also lets you experience Metal Gear in a different way, something earlier titles didn’t really let you see and feel before.
Red Dead Redemption 2 (49 Hours)
Rockstar Games’ story-driven Western epic can be finished in 49 hours for the main story alone, but completionists will have to spend about 179 hours to complete the game. It features a moving story centered on a veteran outlaw named Arthur Morgan.
Widely considered Rockstar’s most dramatic game yet, RDR2 takes on various themes revolving around the last days of the Wild West. Morgan’s experience perfectly shows what’s happened there—where profits, innovation, and civilization seem to have become more important than actual human lives. Despite the game’s seriousness, it does have its fun moments, which makes it all the more worth the while.
Divinity: Original Sin II (50 Hours)
DOS2 offers players a lot of freedom in the game, from what kind of character to play to activities you can. Despite this, its campaign offers a deep narrative that can be finished in about 50 hours. Completing the entire game will take upwards of 100 hours, however.
Those who do try to complete the game will realize that it’s more than just customizing characters and doing whatever you want in the game. It will force you to choose decisions carefully, then agonize over the mistakes made after. You can also rejoice in the victories that come as the fruit of the right steps. Regardless, DOS2 will have you investing more than just time in it—you’ll be investing your emotions and intellect as well.
Dragon Age: Inquisition (61 Hours)
Dragon Age: Inquisition is known for grueling battles against dragons. Defeating a single dragon in this game could take you more than an hour to finish, which means completing the game takes a lot of time—around 170 to be exact. Its open world adds to the amount of time you’ll need to finish the game, but you can actually finish the main story in 61 hours.
Don’t worry about spending too much time finishing the game, however, because there are many meaningful things to see and do in it. All the sidequests and sightseeing you might find yourself doing contribute to what makes this title what it is: a great game.
Valheim (73 Hours)
This brutal survival entry offers lots of content for players to enjoy. You can finish your adventure as a Viking in about 73 hours, can spend upwards of 133 hours to complete all the tasks and build everything you want in the game. Valheim puts you in a massive open world that you are free to roam and explore as you please. You’ll need to master crafting and hunting if you want to survive, and you need to tame and breed animals if you want a steady supply of food and other resources. This is the perfect game for those who want to experience what’s it like to be a Viking from the comfort of their own home.
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (75 Hours)
Capcom’s Monster Hunter for the 3DS and Wii U is a huge game that offers about 75 hours of playtime for the main story alone. Those who want to complete the entire game, including hunting down all monsters and creating all of the items from monsters’ body parts, however, should be prepared to play for more than 600 hours.
Why will it take that long to finish the game? It forces players to start weak, learn the ropes as they go along, improve their skills to take on tougher monsters, and get better equipment capable of slaying targets. This process gets repeated until you become the best Monster Hunter who can take down the toughest of beasts, no matter how long it takes.
Satisfactory (80 Hours)
Satisfactory offers, well, a satisfactory amount of content that will have you playing between 80 to 185 hours. You embark on a quest to create factories on an alien planet so you can extract resources while exploring and fighting off enemies. What makes this factory-building and space exploration exciting is the fact that you are doing it from a first-person perspective. That’s right: unlike certain space exploration/colony building games where you oversee everything from a bird’s eye view, you yourself walk on the ground, land structures on certain terrain, and fight back potential attackers personally. It's interesting stuff.
Kenshi (83 Hours)
Despite having been developed by just one person, Kenshi offers you hundreds of hours of playtime. You can finish this sandbox game in as quickly as 83 hours or spend upwards of 300 hours to complete the game. It’s a challenging and brutal experience that will test your mettle.
What makes Kenshi challenging is that it lets you start out at zero and doesn’t give you some sort of starting bonus like abilities or skills, or even helpful items. You assemble a team of six characters, start as scavengers, then do your best to survive amid the harsh conditions around you. Save enough resources and you just might be able to hire some mercenaries to work for you. Basically, it's a "do your best to survive" kind of game.
Elite: Dangerous (86 Hours)
If the idea of space exploration, with all its possibilities, sounds good to you, then Elite: Dangerous might be your bottomless cup of tea. You can finish the game in 86 hours, then complete it 200 hours later. Exploring the universe in the game will take up more time than that, however. In order to succeed in this game you’ll need more than just that controller. You’re going to need patience and determination to read wiki pages, look for documentation, and even join forums. That’s because the game itself won’t teach you where to go—you’ll have to explore even that part yourself.
Baldur's Gate 2 (88 Hours)
This beloved top-down RPG from Bioware offers players about 88 hours of playtime for the main story and side content. It’s considered one of the best classic RPGs in history, providing players with a lot of things to do such as fighting enemies, solving murders, and surviving dungeons filled with dangers. Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition adds visual improvements to the original, meaning that if you’ve loved the original title, you’re going to love the Enhanced Edition even more. Bioware also added a new character, a thief with a mysterious past and an even more mysterious motive. We won’t reveal any details here, however—you’ll have to discover them for yourself.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla (90 Hours)
This historical fiction epic, which puts players in the shoes of a Viking, takes about 93 hours to finish, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla DLCs not included. Players will spend all that time exploring historical open-world locations across ninth-century England and Norway. While players might think that the plot itself isn’t very interesting, the game has its good points that are worth remembering—or coming back to: an open world that deserves exploring, a protagonist that carries the game well, more fun moments compared to other entries, and so on.
Final Fantasy XII (92.5 Hours)
Final Fantasy games are generally long, but FFXII takes the cake when it comes to playtime. Players should expect to finish this MMO’s main story and side quests in about 90 hours, but this could be longer depending on their performance. This title, which is beloved among so many fans, gave players a welcome break from all the futuristic themes its predecessor, as well as its successor, had. Player characters wielded swords and shields as they roamed the world of Ivalice, which was rife with many issues including politics and world-ending dangers. This is a huge masterpiece that deserves more fans.
Elden Ring (96 Hours)
FromSoftware’s epic Souls-like takes less than 100 hours to finish, but players can spend more than that if they can’t handle the game’s difficulty level. Elden Ring is definitely difficult, and players will realize that it’s actually hard to master many of the game’s mechanics.
That said, it features a very rich open world teeming with secrets to discover. There are loads of items and equipment to acquire, as well as hidden locations that need to be entered to experience the full game. It also boasts of tough enemies that will either motivate players to win or simply frustrate them until they emerge victorious. Elden Ring is a game that should not be ignored.
The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild (97.5 Hours)
Nintendo’s breath of fresh air takes about 97.5 hours to finish, but players might end up taking a lot more time simply enjoying the game’s beautiful worlds. Completionists might spend about 189 hours to finish this, as it is the first Zelda game to have an open world.
Breath of the Wild takes what is best from the old-school Zelda games, and made up for what its three-dimensional predecessors lacked: actual exploration. It then combined all of the good features the franchise is known for to create a game that’s enjoyable when played and memorable when not. It’s so good that some games, like Genshin Impact and Horizon Zero Dawn, have taken inspiration from it.
Related: Who’s the cutest Zelda character?
Xenoblade Chronicles X (108 Hours)
This action RPG for the Wii U provides players with about 108 hours of gameplay for the main story and side content. This could extend for longer depending on how the player does in the game. Xenoblade Chronicles X Completionists might be surprised that there are a lot of things to do—enough to get them to spend about 275 hours playing.
The game itself allows you to pretty much do whatever you want with the time you have in it. Operating from a lone base, you take charge of an organization called BLADE as you explore giant, detailed maps and learn all that you can about their inhabitants—whether big or gigantic. You can progress through the game’s story, or spend more time looking for secrets that may catch your interest. It’s all up to you.
Fallout 4: Game Of The Year Edition (114 Hours)
Players will find that there are tons of things to do in a post-nuclear apocalyptic world like the one in Fallout 4. The Game Of The Year Edition will take about 114 hours to finish the main story and side content. It’s worth noting that this includes playtimes for expansions like Far Harbor DLC. Fallout 4 forces players to find a way to survive and thrive in a world destroyed by nuclear warfare. You learn to make compromises, take sides, and do whatever it takes to find your son who was kidnapped, and know what happened to him. You fight, level up, grow your stats, and become the person you need to be to get your son back.
Skyrim: Special Edition (116 Hours)
This well-known epic will consume about 116 hours of your time, but only if you focus on the main story and side content. Doing other stuff like committing crimes can add to that, but spending time on completing the entire game can take you upwards of 200 hours. All that time can be spent just wandering through Skyrim’s lush world, watching NPCs interact with the environment, or just enjoying the enhanced graphics the Special Edition brought to the original game. It’s pretty much the same beloved title released years before it, but with better presentation.
Final Fantasy XIV (120 Hours)
Despite being an MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV features a lot of content connected to the game’s story. Players can expect to finish the base game in about 40 hours, then add about 20 to 30 hours for each of the game’s expansions. This means you should expect to finish the main story in about 120 to 160 hours, minus the grinding and other things done in MMORPGs.
All of that time will be well spent, however, with the game’s beautiful sights and sounds and its enjoyable quests that make it a good MMO. And while players might be forced to wait for servers to get decongested sometimes (a testament to its popularity, really), logging in is worth the wait.
Persona 5 Royal (125 Hours)
This stylish RPG will have you spending an average of 125 hours to finish the main story and side content while enjoying its soundtrack. It brings more content to the already lengthy Persona 5, adding new characters, locations, and activities. That said, players who loved the original Persona 5 will love Persona 5 Royal even more. It takes what’s best from the original, improves on its visuals and music, expands the plot, adds new memorable characters, and lets you experience Persona 5 all over again, but better.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt GOTY Edition (126 Hours)
Your adventures as Geralt of Rivia can be over in as soon as 126 hours if you focus on the game’s main story and side content alone. However, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt GOTY Edition's playtime includes that of the game’s two expansions. Players, of course, can spend more time collecting armor and weapons or playing mini-games to pass the time.
That said, you will really need to spend a lot of time making important decisions in the game. Each major decision will lead to a different ending for various characters, not just Geralt himself. This epic has around three dozen endings, and it’s up to you to find out what they are and how you can arrive at them.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (360+ Hours)
Animal Crossing: New Horizons might look simple enough, but it does have tons of content for players to enjoy. Those who want to complete the entire base game should expect to play up to 366 hours to cover the main story and other side content. This could expand even more, as the game has a massive support base, including from Nintendo itself.
Now, what do you have to do to play that long? A lot—New Horizons will have you looking for resources, creating tools you can use to craft and build, and repeating the process until you’ve built your island paradise. You do all this while building relationships with your neighbors and enjoying the slow life Nintendo wanted you to have. 360+ hours aren’t enough, really.
End
And that’s it for our list of the longest video games of all time. You can take the times mentioned above and use this as a basis for your own time spent in the games. Compete to see if you can finish the main stories faster, or complete the games in a shorter time compared to the average.
For similar lists and other gaming suggestions, check out Best Mobile Games and Best Games with Multiple Endings here at Pro Game Guides.
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23 Longest Video Games of all time
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