There's something for everyone when it comes to video games. But, sometimes, we wish it never ended. Fortunately, some particularly massive titles require players to accumulate hundreds of hours to see the end of it.
Using data from the community site How Long To Beat, which tracks how long it takes to complete a game based on several criteria, we've compiled the list of the 10 games with the most gigantic lifespans.
The longest games to complete
Believe it or not, but it took a hell of a lot of sorting to extract from How Long To Beat a workable list of the longest video games to complete.
Indeed, the site being community, its members tend to come and register their playing time once they have finished with a title. And multiplayer games, or game-services, are widely represented.
For the joke, we note that World of Tanks: Blitz claims (by far) first place on the site, with an average of 2 hours.
But if we only keep the single-player games, with content that cannot be stretched at will, here is what this ranking gives:
- Mobius Final Fantasy : 207 heures (RPG, 2015, Square Enix, PC/iOS/Android)
- Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius : 182 heures (RPG, 2017, Square Enix, iOS/Android)
- Fate/Grand Order : 165 heures (RPG, 2015, Aniplex, iOS/Android)
- Dragon Quest VII: 105 hours (RPG, 2001, Enix, PS1)
- Persona 5 Royal : 103 hours (RPG, 2020, Atlus, PS4)
- Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children : 92 heures (Tactical/Visual novel, 2017, Dandylion, PC)
- Wizardry 8: 92 heures (CRPG, 2001, Sir-Tech, PC)
- Inquisitor: 90 hours (CRPG, 2013, Cinemax, PC)
- Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 : 82 hours (RPG), Altus, PS2)
- Pathfinder: Kingmaker : 76 heures (CRPG, Deep Silver, PC/PS4/Xbox One)
Mobile games and RPGs overrepresented
By their nature (often free-to-play) and their economic model (based on microtransactions), mobile games are very represented in this list.
But, more generally, it is role-playing games (RPGs) that hold the crown. It's obvious: when you play an RPG, you surrender completely to a universe that is not ours. And the studios do not hesitate to make the pleasure last for dozens and dozens of hours.
Thus, the Dragon Quest and Persona series are particularly present in this list and beyond.
Among the titles perhaps a little better known to the general public, let us retain Assassin's Creed Valhalla (59 hours), The Witcher 3 (55 hours) or The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (50 hours). The very recent Elden Ring gets away with 49 hours on average to complete the main quest, just ahead of Red Dead Redemption 2 (49 hours as well).
And you, what game held you far too long in front of your screen?
