Let’s kick off this list of the longest video games of all time by noting something very important. This list is a combination of our own personal experiences, plus data shared by HowLongToBeat, a site that collects game completion data. Your experiences with specific games may vary greatly.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Complete)
Just like Dragon Age, the actual story of Oblivion will probably take you around the same as your average RPG; that being around 30-40 hours. However, we all know that barely anyone just played Oblivion for the story. You’re getting sucked into side quests along the way, and that will put your average play time well into the 100+ realm.
Fallout: New Vegas
Seeing a running theme here? It won’t last throughout the whole article, but yes, Fallout: New Vegas is yet another game where, main story-wise, the playtime weighs in at a manageable 30 hours or so. It’s when you start going down the rabbit hole of exploring the desert wastelands of what was formerly Las Vegas, though, that you start dipping into a 100+ hour experience.
Divinity: Original Sin II
Divinity: Original Sin II is easily one of the longest video games out there. Its a D&D-inspired WRPG that gives you so much freedom to create your own personalized character, and allows you to approach quests with a lot of latitude and creativity. Divinity: Original Sin II’s campaign is lengthy enough clocking in at around 50 hours. However, you can expect to spend around a 100 hours+ just interacting with the world, completing side quests, or messing around with friends in co-op.
Baldur’s Gate II
Baldur’s Gate II is one of the all-time great classic iso-RPGs and the inspiration for modern games in the genre like the excellent Pillars of Eternity. What a lot of classic iso-RPGs have in common is that they are long… very long. Just going through the main quest of this one will probably take around 70+ hours, and you can easily up that number into the 100s by going all-in on the side quests.
Final Fantasy XII
Most Final Fantasy games are going to cost you at least 40 hours, but Final Fantasy XII takes the cake for the non-MMORPG entries. Assuming you’re not going out of your way to blaze through the main story with the lowest stats possible, and you spend time doing quests, and hunts, you’re looking at roughly 100 hours for a completionist’s run. The Zodiac Age remake can considerably speed this up via its fast-forward mechanic, but it’s still a sizable amount of time.
Xenoblade Chronicles II
Xenoblade Chronicles II carries on the series’ tradition of being long AF. It can easily clock in at 100 hours+ just for a normal run-through. If you spend completing side objectives though, it can even approach 200 hours, certainly making it one of the longest video games around.
Persona 5 Royal
Persona 5 might have one of the longest games in terms of pure main story time completions on this list. Even just casually going through side objectives, and playing the game normally without any kind of guide is probably going to take you almost 100 hours. If you’re trying to get all the social links and Personas, you’re looking at 150 hours+ easy (again assuming you don’t use a min/max guide). With the Royal content added on though, this can balloon even further to as much as 250 hours, ensuring you won’t step away from the experience for a good long while.
Rainbow Moon
Right up there with Persona 5 is Rainbow Moon. The storyline alone will probably run people almost 100 hours if not more, and then you also have extra objectives to keep you busy for even longer if you want as well.
Fallout 4 (Complete)
What makes Fallout 4, another super long open-world WRPG, stand out from some of the other games on this list is its substantial amount of DLC. Nuka World alone adds a very sizable area to explore on top of the already massive Commonwealth zone. Even without mods, Vanilla Fallout 4 plus its DLC will easily take people over 100 hours, assuming you’re not just pushing through the main story as quickly as possible.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Complete)
Again, like Fallout 4, Skyrim has a massive area to explore from the start. There are guilds to join, side quests to complete, and much much more. You can also lump in the massive Dragonborn expansion, which throws one of the locales of Morrowind, Solstheim, into the mix as well. Like all of the other open-world WRPGs on this list, your experience is going to vary, but for most people, get ready to sign on for as many as 200 hours of playtime to complete everything.
Xenoblade Chronicles X
Xenoblade Chronicles X takes the cake in a series of games that are very long, and is arguably the longest JRPG of all time (depending on your definition of it). The main story will run you long enough, but there is so much extra content for completionists that you can easily spend over 150 to 200 hours in Xenoblade Chronicles X if you wanted to.
Final Fantasy XIV
While MMORPGs are usually a bit tricky to fit in here, Final Fantasy XIV is a different beast since the majority of its content is tied to actual story content. You’re looking at roughly 30-40 hours at least to complete the base game and you can easily lump another 20-30 on top just to get through each of the game’s four expansions. For the average player not optimizing their playthroughs, you’re looking at 100-150 hours+ easy before even counting the grinding and typical MMORPG stuff.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Complete)
Although Skyrim gets more attention these days, Morrowind still has the heart of the purists of the series. It’s the game that bridges the early years of the franchise with the modern age. It features many of the same open-world elements, but without the luxury of total fast travel and map marker hints. Because of the extra work you’ll need to put in, you’ll be spending a lot more time in Morrowind without a guide, with most estimates falling somewhere around 100 hours for a standard run and 300 hours for a completionist’s run.
The Witcher 3 (Complete)
The Witcher 3 is a massive game, with a ton of well-written content and worthwhile side content. It’s all so well done that it’s almost impossible to resist going off the beaten path to complete them. The Witcher 3 also features lengthy expansions, and putting that all together, you have an experience that could take over 200 hours to complete.
Monster Hunter: Freedom Unite
This is where it gets tricky. The Monster Hunter series is known for being a massive time sink, because of the amount of grinding that you’ll need to do to see the game through to its end. While there’s a lot of choices in the series we could have gone with, Monster Hunter: Freedom Unite takes the cake. Most players according to HowLongToBeat report taking almost 150 hours just to complete the main story and completionist runs taking a massive 455 hours. All the styles averaged together ended up at 237 hours roughly. There’s no doubt that if you want spend ungodly amounts of time on your PSP/Vita, Monster Hunter: Freedom Unite is the way to go.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
If you find yourself wanting to escape into a game for an extended period, there are far worse options than The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Filled to bursting with odd quests, hidden temples, and collectibles to uncover, the world is one which offers players more than enough to keep them occupied well past the point when other games would be rolling their credits. An average playthrough focused on the main story will typically clock in at 100 hours, but if you’re doing everything you possibly can, then that total will be closer to 187 hours.
Red Dead Redemption 2
There’s a reason so many people have claimed that they got lost for weeks in Red Dead Redemption 2. A culmination of Rockstar’s open world design, the game is a scarily detailed portrayal of life in the dying days of the wild west. There are bounties to track down, hidden treasures to find, strangers to interact with and secrets aplenty to uncover. To even take a passing glance via the main story could run you over 100 hours, with a completionist’s run doubling or even tripling that time frame, depending on your skill level.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
It wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration to say that Kojima put everything and the kitchen sink into Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Though its open world may seem a bit barren compared to more recent titles, it still contains a bevy of different facilities to infiltrate, missions to complete, and different methods of completing them. As such, completing everything the game has to offer takes a fair bit of time, with current estimates sitting around 162 hours.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
The total playtime of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a tricky one to nail down, especially since it continues to see support from Nintendo well after release. However, it has been determined that if you aim to complete all of the game’s base content, you can expect to sink as much as 366 hours into the game. Yes, you read that right. For context, that’s a whopping 15.25 full 24-hour days of your life dedicated to the game.
The Binding of Isaac (Complete)
Don’t let The Binding of Isaac’s indie status fool you. It’s a gargantuan game to take on, especially when you factor in all of its DLCs and updates. Undertaking the main story alone will run you roughly 50 hours, and that’s if you’re good at twin-stick shooters. If you’re not, you can expect to tack on another 30 hours thanks to how much you’ll be dying. If you’re aiming for a completionist’s run though – meaning you’re aiming to get every character, item and secret ending – then that playtime will grow to upwards of 230 hours.
Cyberpunk 2077
CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 didn’t get off to the best start, especially on Xbox One and PS4 consoles, but following a number of major updates, the game has come on leaps and bounds. While its main story quests don’t run quite as long as other games on the list, there’s a huge amount of side content to sink your teeth into across Night City that’ll keep you busy for hours on end.
We’d estimate it taking you anywhere between 60-100 hours depending on how much of that side content you dive into. Even so, that’s a good amount of time to spend in the futuristic open world.
Elden Ring
FromSoftware’s latest and arguably greatest Souls-like is also easily one of the longest games of all time. In one of our Elden Ring playthroughs, it took us a staggering 220 hours to become an Elden Lord, and while it’s certainly possible to complete it sooner if you’re a series veteran, there’s still a staggering amount of content to dive into, side quests to complete — and remember to go back to — and boss battles that’ll make you launch your controller out the window.
Yes, we’re looking at you Malenia.
Horizon Forbidden West
The follow-up from the 2017 PS4 exclusive, sees Aloy venturing into the Forbidden West, hence the game’s name. Bringing a more varied map, an epic, cinematic story, and an improved climbing system that makes the world feel so much more immersive and interactive, this sequel builds on the solid foundations of its predecessor and takes it to new heights.
A beeline through the main story will take around 30 hours, but if you go for a 100% playthrough, you’re looking at closer to 100 hours. There’s a ton of side quests to complete and collectibles to grab, as well as additional combat challenges to grind out for the highest scores.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age
Dragon Quest XI follows the journey of a hunted Hero who must uncover the mystery of his fate with the help of a team of friends that’ll help him fight through the perilous dangers of the world. It’s a typical Dragon Age adventure when it comes to gameplay, bringing the turn-based, role-playing action to Xbox One, PS4, Switch and PC.
Completing just the main story will see you sinking upwards of 55 hours into it, but if you’re looking to complete everything the game has to offer, side quests and all, you’re looking at upwards of 120 hours.
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
The 3DS and Wii U entry in the Monster Hunter series is one seriously massive game. It follows the same sort of gameplay loop as the rest of the entries in the series, with players hunting down monsters, defeating them in battle and then using their body parts to craft new and improved armor and weapons to tackle tougher monsters and so on and so forth.
You’re looking at 75 hours alone to beat the main story, but if you’re wanting to go the full completionist route, it’s upwards of 600 hours!
That does it for our list of the longest video games of all time. Let us know what you think down below in the comments.
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