Best Open-World Games That Can Keep You Busy For Months

Open-world games stand out for their freedom, letting players explore vast and often limitless environments. The most successful ones are packed with interesting things to do and rich details, keeping players engaged and wanting to return for many hours.

This article looks at open-world video games that offer long-lasting gameplay, sometimes spanning months. These games cover a variety of genres, including fantasy, adventure, role-playing, and survival. Some have a defined main story that takes many hours to finish, while others let you explore and play indefinitely in vast and detailed worlds.

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11. Horizon Zero Dawn

Post-Apocalyptic Combat And Exploration

Main Story Length: ~20-30 hours
Completionist Length: ~60-70 Hours

Horizon Zero Dawn is a beautiful post-apocalyptic game that combines exploring the world, fighting machines, and completing quests. The game has been recently updated with improved graphics, making the colorful and detailed environments even more immersive for players.

In Horizon Zero Dawn, you play as Aloy, a young woman exploring a world dominated by machines. As you journey through this landscape, you’ll use a range of weapons – like bows, arrows, traps, and explosives – to battle these mechanical creatures.

Horizon Forbidden West also fits.

10. Valheim

Intense Viking Survival Co-Op

Main Progression Length: ~70-100 hours
Completionist Length: 130+ hours

Okay, so I’m playing this awesome survival game based on Norse mythology. Basically, you’re a Viking who’s died and is trying to prove yourself worthy of Valhalla, but first you’re stuck in this huge, monster-filled underworld. It’s a sandbox game, which means I can build, craft, and fight whatever I want. The best part? Each world is massive and has tons of different areas, like forests, mountains, and swamps, all with their own cool stuff to discover.

You can play Valheim alone, but the developers recommend playing with friends! The game supports co-op for up to 10 players. While there’s a bit of a storyline, Valheim is mostly about surviving and building a life in your world, and you can technically play for as long as you like.

9. Red Dead Redemption 2

A Sophisticated Story About Outlaws

Main Story Length: ~50-60 hours
Completionist Length: ~190 hours

People who enjoy Red Dead Redemption 2 praise its compelling story, engaging side missions, and incredibly realistic details – from the characters themselves to the guns they use. The game lets you choose your own path, whether you want to be a noble hero or a notorious outlaw, with options like hunting, committing crimes, and working as a bounty hunter.

I absolutely love Red Dead Redemption 2! It takes place in a reimagined version of the American Old West, and you play as Arthur Morgan, an outlaw. The world is huge and so detailed – it’s based on real places in America, and there’s just so much to discover. Honestly, finishing the main story and even a lot of the side stuff will easily take you over a month if you really get into it. What’s really cool is you can play it again and make totally different choices with Arthur’s morality, which changes the whole experience. It’s amazing how much replay value there is!

Both GTA 5 and GTA Online certainly fit the criteria, particularly GTA Online. However, we focused on games with a strong single-player experience, which is why we chose RDR2 instead.

8. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

Expansive Nordic Open-World Adventure

Main Story Length: ~55-70 hours
Completionist Length: 140+ hours

Similar to other Assassin’s Creed games, Valhalla lets you explore a vast open world based on the landscapes of North-West Europe, and even includes optional mythical realms to discover. The game blends easy-to-learn combat with settlement building and ship-based raids on enemies across England, making it a game that can take a lot of time to fully enjoy.

This RPG offers three distinct ways to play, letting players develop different skills while experiencing a captivating story. The game blends a grand Viking saga with a modern-day mystery centered around the character Layla Hassan. Though the Viking portion, Valhalla, can feel a bit lengthy at times, fans of Ubisoft’s Viking world will find plenty to enjoy.

7. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Loads Of Quests In A Vast Open-World

Main Story Length: ~35 hours
Completionist Length: 200+ hours

Skyrim is famous for its incredibly immersive open world, making it easy to lose yourself in the game for hours. The expansive map features nine distinct regions with diverse landscapes and over 400 places to discover. Players also have the freedom to focus on the main storyline as much or as little as they want, allowing them to explore at their own speed.

If you’re not drawn in by the main story of Dragonborn, you can easily create your own adventure in Skyrim. You can join different factions, team up with companions, and simply explore the world to discover hidden treasures. And that’s not even considering the incredibly active PC community, which has created countless graphical improvements, new quests, and mods that add whole new regions to the game. People have been enjoying Skyrim for years, and continue to do so.

Morrowind and Oblivion can also keep you busy for months.

6. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Great Storytelling And Deep Lore

Main Story Length: ~50 hours
Completionist Length: 150+ hours

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the third game in the Witcher series, boasts a compelling main story and incredibly well-made side quests that keep the action flowing and make it hard to stop playing. Even after over a decade, the game’s world remains remarkably impressive, standing out for both its vast size and high level of detail.

The game world is richly detailed and full of life, with its story woven into the environment itself. It’s heavily inspired by the folklore and culture of Eastern Europe. Plus, several excellent downloadable content packs add even more to the gameplay, story, and world details.

5. Elden Ring

A Massive Open-World Game With Dozens Of Bosses And A Ridiculous Amount Of Optional Content

Main Story Length: ~60 hours
Completionist Length: 130+ hours

Players have long been captivated by FromSoftware’s challenging games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne, so it’s no surprise that Elden Ring is equally engrossing. While not the largest or most visually stunning open world, The Lands Between is incredibly dense with enemies, secrets, hidden areas, optional bosses, and valuable items. It’s filled with so much to discover that most players feel driven to explore every inch of the world, determined not to miss a thing.

Even if you rush through the game and only fight the necessary bosses – something you definitely shouldn’t do on your first time – you’re still looking at weeks of gameplay. A complete playthrough will likely take months, but Elden Ring lets you create so many different characters that you’ll want to play again and again. Exploring the game world as a magic user will be a very different experience than playing as a warrior, and these are just a few of the many ways to enjoy the game.

4. Genshin Impact

A Regularly-Updated World Of Quests

No Completion: The game is updated with new content, but the current max progression sits around ~350+ hours

As a huge fan of Genshin Impact, I’m completely blown away by the world of Teyvat! It’s this massive, beautiful open world divided into nine different areas, and what’s really cool is that each region feels inspired by real places and cultures around the globe. You can run, jump, and climb anywhere, and there’s always something to find – whether it’s hidden collectibles or interesting characters to chat with. It truly feels like a living, breathing world!

The game centers around a traveler’s search for a lost sibling, but offers much more to do. Each area has its own special quests, and there are daily tasks for players to complete regularly. New content is added frequently, encouraging players to return often. Plus, the game features a ‘gacha’ system – a collectible element that keeps people playing as they try to unlock new and powerful characters.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (& Tears of the Kingdom)

An Open-World Masterpiece Played At Your Own Pace

Main Story Length: ~50 hours
Completionist Length: 170+ hours

Look, if you’re looking for a Switch game, Breath of the Wild is a no-brainer. Seriously, when it first came out, it pretty much made the Switch worth buying. It’s a huge open world where you’re just dropped into Hyrule after some crazy apocalypse as Link, and your main goal is to beat Calamity Ganon. But here’s the cool part: you don’t have to do anything else! Even freeing the Divine Beasts is optional – it’s all up to you, which is awesome.

Once the game starts, you’re pretty much free to do whatever you want! You can wander around, find cool stuff, win battles, and yeah, even fail sometimes. I guess you could technically beat it in a day or two if you rushed straight to the final boss, but you’d have to be seriously good to survive Hyrule Castle. Honestly though, most of us take our time and really explore everything, making some awesome memories along the way.

While Tears of the Kingdom offers even more gameplay than Breath of the Wild, we chose Breath of the Wild to best represent Nintendo’s overall series.

2. Minecraft

Endlessly Creative Sandbox

No Completion: dedicated players have logged more than ~1000 hours.

Most people are familiar with Minecraft, and its widespread appeal comes down to a few key features. Players can enjoy both creative building and challenging survival modes, and the game supports both solo and cooperative play. Plus, with the ability to add countless modifications, there’s always something new to experience. The vastness of the game world, combined with creations from other players, provides endless possibilities and keeps things fresh.

Minecraft offers players a unique experience: they can dive into the game’s rich story, or completely ignore it and build anything they can imagine in its vast, ever-changing world. The only real limit is your creativity, and players have already shown just how far that can go.

2026-02-08 00:39