Games That Last Over 200 Hours – Investment Policy

While some games can be enjoyed in a weekend, others demand weeks – or even months – of playtime. But players don’t mind, because that time feels justified by the game’s depth. These games are known for being incredibly immersive, constantly offering new things to explore and achieve long after you’ve finished the main story, thanks to their rich worlds, complex systems, and rewarding progression.

These games span many genres, including role-playing games, massive online worlds, and open-world adventures. Despite their differences, they all share a captivating quality. Players often start with a simple goal, but quickly find themselves immersed in new quests or experimenting with different character builds. Time flies by because the games consistently offer new possibilities rather than limitations.

The completionist times are from How Long To Beat.

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim

Completionist Time: 237 Hours

A giant fantasy world where guild storylines, Daedric quests, and sprawling dungeons.
Character builds, skill grinding, and crafting loops add enough optional paths to keep someone busy for hundreds of hours.

Skyrim is incredibly immersive, often keeping players engaged for over 200 hours. It does this by constantly presenting new things to do. What starts as a small task – like speaking with a local leader or exploring a cave – can quickly turn into a sprawling adventure. The game features extensive questlines through guilds and factions, strange requests from powerful entities, and a world where every path leads to a dungeon filled with treasure, danger, and secrets.

One of the reasons players spend over 237 hours in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is the variety of ways to play. A character focused on stealth and archery will have a very different experience than a heavily armored magic-user, and experimenting with new character types makes the game feel new even after many hours. Plus, the game’s Radiant quests provide an endless stream of repeatable tasks that send you all over the world. For those who enjoy collecting, there are also plenty of unique weapons, rare items, and hidden books to find.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Completionist Time: 249 Hours

A huge sandbox full of sky islands, underground zones, and secrets that tempt players into wandering far past the main quest.
Dozens of side adventures, shrine puzzles, armor upgrades, zonai device builds, and world-reactive systems.

The true scope of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom goes well beyond its central storyline. The game gives players incredible freedom and tools, encouraging exploration of Hyrule. You’ll find floating islands high above, a vast underground world to discover, and hidden areas filled with puzzles and unique characters. Importantly, the world never feels empty – there’s always something interesting to see that draws you in and leads to new adventures.

The game is filled with armor to collect and improve, secret caves to discover, and little side stories to uncover throughout the world. Each of these things requires some effort, exploration, and often a bit of creative thinking. It’s easy to get sidetracked – you might start looking for one item and end up pursuing five different quests before you even remember what you originally set out to do! It’s no surprise, then, that players who aim to complete everything in Tears of the Kingdom spend an average of 249 hours doing so.

Xenoblade Chronicles X

Completionist Time: 251 Hours

A huge alien planet filled with massive zones, towering creatures, hidden caves, and story quests that branch into long side missions.
Deep systems for Skells, affinity quests, grinding, loot hunting, and exploring every inch of Mira.

The world of Xenoblade Chronicles X is massive, filled with huge landscapes, narrow canyons, and sprawling plains, meaning it takes a significant amount of time to explore. Although the main story provides a framework, you’ll spend most of your time completing side quests, building relationships with characters, and searching every corner of the map for valuable items and challenging enemies.

A key part of Xenoblade Chronicles X’s gameplay is the Skell system. Skells are customizable mechs that dramatically change how you explore the world and fight enemies. They allow you to fly, move quickly across the landscape, and take on massive enemies you couldn’t face on foot. You unlock Skells by progressing through the story and completing certain tasks. Once you have one, upgrading and customizing it with new parts and weapons becomes a major focus, encouraging players to spend time collecting resources and improving their Skell for different combat roles.

Elite Dangerous

Completionist: 677 Hours

A full galaxy modeled at scale, with deep systems for trading, exploration, bounty hunting, mining, engineering upgrades, and faction influence.
Ship progression, long-distance expeditions, player-driven goals, and mastery of flight simulation mechanics create an endless grind.

In Elite Dangerous, you begin with a spaceship, but quickly discover that flying is just the beginning. The game features many complex underlying systems – from customizing ship components and managing power, to unlocking specialized upgrades with hard-to-find materials, and choosing ship frames that affect how it flies. What really sets Elite Dangerous apart is its immense scale. Even a straightforward journey can easily become an extended adventure when you encounter a rare planet or a mysterious signal in deep space.

In Elite Dangerous, spaceships are a major focus for players, and it takes a lot of time to perfect them. You can customize each ship endlessly, tweaking and rebuilding it until it feels exactly how you want. Players often spend hours collecting resources, finding skilled engineers, and testing different configurations in combat. Earning a new drive or a well-balanced set of weapons feels incredibly rewarding because it takes significant effort to achieve.

World of Warcraft

Completionist Time: 1377 – 2154 Hours

A massive MMO with years of expansions, quest chains, raids, professions, reputations, mounts, and achievements.
Endgame loop of collecting gear, climbing mythic difficulties, mastering classes, and chasing seasonal rewards.

World of Warcraft is incredibly engaging because it constantly gives players new things to do within a vast and evolving game world. While there’s an overarching story, it’s always growing with new lands, challenges, and events added over time. Each update simply adds more goals to an already packed list, keeping players hooked.

This game offers several ways to progress. You can improve your character by repeatedly completing activities for better gear, mastering professions that require gathering resources and learning new recipes, or building reputation to unlock rewards. Getting certain items in World of Warcraft can take months of dedicated play, as they’re often tied to lengthy tasks, rare boss drops, or events that only happen at specific times.

2025-11-28 06:08