Video Games That Take the Longest to Beat

Remember when beating a video game meant a triumphant weekend and not a time-sink rivaling a full-time job? As game development has evolved, so too has the sheer scale of these digital worlds with some modern titles requiring hundreds of hours to fully experience. Some gamers crave these massive adventures where they can lose themselves for months at a time. Others, like those who play our solitaire games, prefer experiences that just take short bursts.

At Solitaired, we’re fascinated by how time commitments to gaming have shifted throughout time. We analyzed data from thousands of popular titles on HowLongToBeat to identify which games represent the most substantial time investments across different platforms, genres, and decades—from simply finishing the main story to achieving that elusive 100% completion.

Our comprehensive analysis reveals surprising patterns about which games, platforms, and genres are most likely to consume entire seasons of your life. Whether you’re wondering which titles provide the most bang for your buck or wondering if you have time to start that massive open-world adventure, our research should have the answer. Curious to find out which titles topped the charts? Keep reading to find out.

Key Takeaways

• Animal Crossing: New Leaf; Animal Crossing: New Horizons; and Path of Exile are the three games that take the longest to beat.
• Notable short games include the first Super Mario, Disney's Aladdin (1993), and Monument Valley.
• Nintendo DS, the Xbox Series consoles, and PlayStation 5 are the three consoles with the longest average video games.
• Turned-based, role-playing, and simulation are the three longest genres on average.
• Video game length has been increasing in recent years—2023 and 2024's average length were longer than any other year in the past decade.
• Gamers generally like long games. Out of the top 20 longest games on our list, just four have an average player rating below 80%.
• The Persona and Xenoblade Chronicles series each have three games in the top 20 longest games.

The Longest Video Games

Animal Crossing’s two most recent mainline games, New Leaf (released in 2012 for the Nintendo 3DS) and New Horizons (released in 2020 for the Nintendo Switch) are the two longest games, per our study. Cozy life simulator New Leaf is particularly lengthy and takes gamers 469 hours to 100% beat on average. New Horizons isn’t far behind as it takes 421 hours on average to 100% beat that game.

The next two games, action role-playing game (RPG) Path of Exile and cooperative shooter Payday 2, both take longer to 100% beat than either Animal Crossing game. However, neither game’s main story takes as long to beat, which ends up marking them below both Animal Crossings overall.

Rounding out the top five is Japanese RPG Persona 5 Royal, which takes 101 hours to beat the main story—the lengthiest in that category in the top 20. The two prior games in the Persona series, Persona 3 and 4, also cracked the top 20 for their lengthy campaigns, both of which take upwards of 70-plus hours to beat.

In general, our study reveals that gamers like long games. Out of the 20 longest games we reviewed, 16 have an average player rating of 80% or above. The highest rating in the top 20 belong to a pair of games that players rated 94% each: Persona 5 Royal and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

The Shortest Video Games

Next let’s look at some notable games on the other end of the list. This isn’t the full list of the fastest games, but is merely some short games that are noteworthy for their fame or quality.

Contra, a run-and-gun game that was released in 1987 for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), takes under 2 hours to 100% beat. That game went on to spawn a series of sequels, the most recent being Contra: Rogue Corps, which came out in 2019.

Other quick games include a couple of Metal Slug titles: 3 and X in particular. That series, which is run-and-gun like Contra, has a long history that dates back to 1996. It also includes a turn-based tactics spin-off, Metal Slug Tactics, that came out in 2024.

Two of Nintendo’s Super Mario titles are also quick. The first Super Mario Bros. that came out in 1985 for the NES and Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, a 1992 Game Boy exclusive. Both those games take as little as 2 hours to get through on average.

Modern quick classics (order by year of release) include mobile puzzler Monument Valley released in 2014, adventure title ABZÛ (2016), cozy puzzler Donut Country (2018), and exploration game A Short Hike (2018). Those games take between 1.5 hours to 2 hours to beat.

How Length Varies by Console and Genre

It can be particularly interesting to break down averages across different consoles and genres. When looking at consoles, the dual-screen Nintendo 3DS (launched in 2011) takes the top spot for the console with the longest games on average. Next up is the current generation of home consoles: The Xbox Series X/S has the second longest games on average, while the PlayStation 5 has the third longest.

Rounding out the top five longest consoles are a pair of handheld devices that both had games released between 2004 and 2014: The PlayStation Portable is #4 while the Nintendo DS is #5.

Moving over to genres, the longest genre on average is turn-based games. Long games in this genre include the Persona games, Civilization V, and Baldur’s Gate 3.

Next up are RPGs, which include marathon titles like Path of Exile; Monster Hunter: World; and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The third-longest genre on average are simulation titles like the Animal Crossing series, the Persona series, and Stardew Valley.

Video Game Lengths Are Up in Recent Years

In the past two years, game length has increased when looking at the amount of time it takes to 100% beat a game. Games released in 2023 take an average of 56.2 hours to 100% beat while games released in 2024 take 66.2 hours. Both those averages are well above any other year in the past decade.

In fact, only two years prior to 2015 had an 100% beat time average above 51 hours: 2000’s average was 52.9 hours while 2013 averaged 54.3. Interestingly, the pandemic years of 2021 and 2022 had 100% completion averages of 39.8 and 41.0 hours—those are the shortest years on record since the mid-2000’s.

One possible reason for this recent trend: It’s possible that gamers are more likely to review more recent games that are longer on HowLongToBeat. Since we only looked at games with at least 1,000 submissions in our analysis, it’s possible that shorter, more recent games just don’t have as many reviews yet. However, that’s only a theory—not a solid fact.

Another possibility: The pandemic shifted game development such that fewer shorter games were delayed due to Covid, while the longer titles required more development time due to restrictions and changing working environments. This means that 2021 and 2022 saw the releases of shorter games on average, while 2023 and 2024 averaged longer ones. Again, this is just a possible reason for this trend, not necessarily the true causation.

Find Your Gaming Balance with Solitaired

Modern gaming has evolved into a landscape of extremes. On one end, we have mobile games designed for quick sessions. On the other are sprawling epics demanding hundreds of hours to complete. What’s often missing is the middle—games that offer depth and satisfaction without requiring a second mortgage on your time.

At Solitaired, we believe in balance. Our collection of classic card games strikes the perfect harmony between accessibility and engagement. Unlike a 400-plus-hour behemoth like Animal Crossing or the endless grind of Path of Exile, our games adapt to your schedule. Whether you have 5 minutes or 50, games like Spider Solitaire or Mahjong provide you the perfect mental workout without the guilt of an unfinished campaign. Because sometimes the best gaming experiences aren’t about how long you play, find the best playtime that fits into your life.

Methodology

To uncover the longest video games, we analyzed data from How Long To Beat. We looked only at games with at least 1,000 player submissions and with all three primary length categories (main story, main + sides, and completionist). We analyzed How Long To Beat’s three primary metrics—main story, main + sides, and completionist—across all qualifying games and compiled those into a single rating out of 100 to generate our list of the video games that take the longest to beat. In total, 1,308 games were analyzed across 30 years of gaming history.

We then took the list of qualifying games and developed categorical rankings based on console and genre. These rankings were generated by averaging the time-to-beat scores of all qualifying games in each category. Finally, we also averaged the completionist times by year of release for all years in our analysis.