Best Games That Feel Endless Without Padding Their Runtime

Hardcore gamers and those who strive to complete everything aren’t easily discouraged. Even something as demanding as maximizing a stat across every level in Donkey Kong Bananza (likely one of Nintendo’s biggest hits of 2025) won’t stop some players from achieving 100%. Ultimately, players will always find ways to get the most enjoyment possible out of games.

We also want to enjoy ourselves while playing, so it’s frustrating when a game has a huge amount of content, but much of it is just filler – like endlessly collecting items. If you’re looking for games that offer a long, engaging experience without relying on repetitive tasks, these might be perfect for you.

7. Minecraft

Mining And Crafting Since 2011

Games with virtually no end are often ‘sandbox’ style, where players are free to create and explore. Instead of adding endless story content or levels, these games focus on giving players powerful tools and a huge, open world to use them in. This allows for near-limitless replayability through player creativity.

Minecraft is a great example of a game with endless replayability. While a challenging Hardcore run can end quickly with one mistake, standard survival or creative modes can be enjoyed indefinitely. As long as you set goals – whether it’s achieving something in survival or completing a large build in creative – you can keep playing for a very long time. In fact, the scale of what’s possible in Minecraft is huge; Guinness World Records recognizes “Build The Earth,” a project recreating the entire planet at a 1:1 scale, as the largest Minecraft creation ever.

6. Hades

The Underworld’s Defenses Need Testing Again, And Again, And Again

Like sandbox games, roguelikes are great for providing players with a never-ending stream of content. The core idea is to play through the game repeatedly, improving with each run, and then continuing to play to test different strategies and unlock more features. Many consider Supergiant’s Hades, and its sequel, to be the best example of this genre. Hades doesn’t feel repetitive thanks to its compelling story that unfolds between runs and the abundance of things to unlock and challenges to overcome. The game’s ‘Dark Thirst’ mechanic adds even more depth, constantly giving dedicated players something new to strive for.

Unlocking the game’s complete ending and fully upgrading your weapons takes a lot of effort. You’ll need to defeat the final boss repeatedly, and even that isn’t enough to max out your Weapon Aspects. Leveling up your companions uses a different resource, Ambrosia, and improving the House of Hades requires Diamonds and other items. Getting these resources means doing many, many runs, and constantly increasing the difficulty through the Pact of Punishment to earn more rewards. Each weapon type has its own Heat Level goals, so you’ll need to switch between them often. If you want to collect every statue of Skelly, prepare for dozens more runs with increasingly higher Heat levels.

5. Borderlands 2

Keep The Carnage Coming

Many fans consider Borderlands 2 the strongest game in the series, a significant improvement over the first and packed with content. Its numerous expansions each offer substantial and diverse experiences, featuring creative storylines like the tournament in Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage, which was designed around gaining access to a Vault. This campaign famously ended with a battle against a massive, over-the-top boss: a mechanical t-rex truck, arguably one of the most memorable enemies in the entire game.

The character classes in this game let you customize your abilities in flexible ways, encouraging you to discover powerful strategies that fit your playstyle. While the most potent skills are at the end of each ability tree, it takes significant leveling to unlock them. To truly maximize a character, you might need to play through the challenging True Vault Hunter and even Ultimate Vault Hunter modes to keep gaining levels efficiently. And that’s just for one character! The game’s loot system ensures that leveling up isn’t just about extending playtime; it’s about completing your character build with all skills and the best possible equipment. Trying to fully develop all the characters would be a massive undertaking.

4. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Your Island Could Be Your Permanent Home

As a huge Animal Crossing fan, I’ve noticed a funny thing happens with a lot of players. You start playing every single day, getting into a nice routine. Then it slowly becomes every other day, then just once a week… and eventually, you stop altogether, almost feeling embarrassed to visit because of Cube the penguin and his guilt trips about how long it’s been! But honestly, if you really fall in love with the game, it feels like you could just… live there forever. It really can become your permanent island home!

These games don’t really have an ‘end’. It’s all about how you choose to play. Dedicated players—those who love designing landscapes, creating beautiful gardens, and perfecting their islands—often spend a little time each day just maintaining everything. Even after finishing the museum, collecting all items, and decorating your house, there’s always something to do, because your villagers enjoy seeing you as much as you enjoy them. And if you have the Happy Home Paradise DLC, you could easily spend hundreds more hours designing every island home to your liking. Plus, you’ll continually unlock new furniture, giving you reasons to revisit and improve your earlier creations as your options expand.

3. Civilization 7

One (Hundred) More Turn(s)

The game Civilization is well-known for being incredibly captivating. It’s a special feeling when you find a civilization and leader that really suit how you like to play, and then see your progress accelerate as their unique abilities and your strategy come together. But you can also adjust the game to be more relaxed, making a Score Victory very difficult to achieve and extending the playtime. Ultimately, Civilization lets you tailor the experience to your liking, even allowing for campaigns that can go on indefinitely.

Civilization 7 has been consistently getting better since its initial release. A new feature called One More Turn mode, announced in April 2025, lets players keep going even after winning the game. While the game already offered a lot of ways to win with different civilizations and scenarios, this endless gameplay option takes things to a whole new level.

2. Diablo 3

The Story Is Far From The End

To keep a game from feeling unnecessarily long, it’s important to offer plenty of ways to keep playing after the main story ends, but these options need to be genuinely enjoyable and well-integrated. When creating longer games, it’s crucial to value the player’s time, and Diablo 3 does a great job of this. Each game in the Diablo series handles post-game content differently, and this particular installment struck a good balance.

I finished the main story of Diablo 3 in about 18 hours, which isn’t super long. But honestly, that’s just the beginning! If you’re like me and want to really get into it, you’re looking at around 170 hours. Once you beat the final boss, there’s so much to do. You can run Nephalem and Greater Rifts, participate in Seasons, and team up with friends. The game keeps throwing challenges at you that get harder as you get stronger, so there’s always something to do. Plus, it’s hard to resist the temptation of finding better gear, and I often find myself wanting to try out a completely new character build, which basically means starting over! It’s seriously addictive.

1. No Man’s Sky

Just How Big Is The Universe?

Like No Man’s Sky before it, Civilization 7 has been steadily improved with updates focused on giving players more content and a larger game world. No Man’s Sky avoids pointless tasks and instead offers a main storyline to guide players and provide some direction, but the core of the game isn’t about following a set path.

You can build a powerful trading empire, create a massive base, or explore diverse planets. The game uses procedural generation, so every playthrough is unique, and experiences range from structured to completely random—especially when playing with others. There’s almost no limit to how long you can play, but you control the pace. Expect to gather resources like uranium and engage in many other activities along the way.

2026-01-07 20:42