These Are the Longest Games of 2023

HowLongToBeat, a website that tracks how long users take to complete various games, released its end-of-the-year results for 2023, highlighting the year’s longest RPG games. These results exclude “endless” titles, leading the RPG genre to dominate this list. Despite the RPG genre’s prevalence on this leaderboard, the results are made up of a healthy mix of such games, ranging from action adventures, to dungeon crawlers, to Japanese titles.

2023 was a solid year for games, with hits like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2 taking home multiple awards at The Game Awards 2023. RPGs like Baldur’s Gate 3 are usually some of the most popular games every year, and while they don’t always offer fast-paced action like shooters or racing games do, they often give players a more slow-paced, thoughtful experience. In terms of player satisfaction, these titles can pay dividends in the long run, and this list highlights some of the longest-form games of the year.

HowLongToBeat revealed that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom topped its list as 2023’s longest game, with the average user on HowLongToBeat’s website taking 110 hours to complete it. Baldur’s Gate 3 finished as a close second at 105 hours, Octopath Traveler 2 finished third at 80 hours, and Starfield finished fourth at 65 hours. Hogwarts Legacy will possibly finish as the best-selling game of 2023, and also finished at number seven on this list with an average completion time of 46 hours. However, it should be noted that these figures only count players who logged their completion times on HowLongToBeat’s website, so these numbers aren’t necessarily representative of the general gaming population.

What Were the Longest Games of 2023?

• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – 110 hours
• Baldur’s Gate 3 – 105 hours
• Octopath Traveler 2 – 80 hours
• Starfield – 65 hours
• Fire Emblem Engage – 63 hours
• Final Fantasy 16 – 58 hours
• Hogwarts Legacy – 46 hours
• Diablo 4 – 41 hours
• Lies of P – 37 hours
• Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty – 35 hours

Not only was The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom 2023’s longest game, but it was also one of the most critically acclaimed, with a Metacritic score of 96. Some fans are already hoping for a Zelda sequel and speculating about what its premise might be.

Baldur’s Gate 3 fans are still uncovering secrets hidden within the game, displaying its impressive combination of length and detail. Baldur’s Gate 3 won Game of the Year, Best Role Playing Game, and more at The Game Awards 2023, conquering a total of six categories.

Fans of long-form RPGs have plenty to look forward to in 2024, with anticipated games like Avowed, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth slated for 2024 releases. Although the rumor of Death Stranding 2‘s next trailer being revealed at The Game Awards did not pan out, fans are still hoping for a 2024 release date.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the sequel to the beloved open-world adventure, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This installment once again sees Link and Zelda battling to protect Hyrule from falling to Ganondorf. This new adventure takes place in the same land of Hyrule as Breath of the Wild but sees something called the Upheaval, which allows link to travel to Sky Islands, as well as deep into the Depths beneath Hyrule. Players can use special abilities to fuse together weapons, and build items to help them progress through the release.

Released

May 12, 2023

Developer(s)

Nintendo

Publisher(s)

Nintendo

Genre(s)

Adventure

ESRB

Rated E for Everyone 10+ for Fantasy Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes

How Long To Beat

59 Hours

Metascore

96