Open-world games are easily some of the most expansive on the marketplace. Allowing players to do whatsoever they want in whatever order they want, open-world games give a degree of freedom to players that few other games permit.

This liberty and ability to explore things at their own pace oft means players volition spend more time in open-world games than any other genre. The best of the best in the genre are designed to be so expansive that players can spend literally hundreds of hours in the earth if they want to. HowLongToBeat.com is a site dedicated to cataloging how long players, on average, spend playing a game, with the time to just rush through the main story at the low cease and the fourth dimension it takes to 100% the game on the high end.

Updated on October 12, 2021, by Ryan Woodrow: With the new generation of consoles fully underway, open worlds in games are continuing to grow ever bigger, and always denser. Companies are able to produce an astounding amount of content to stuff into a single earth that will run into players spoilt for choice as to what to exercise, no matter where in the globe they stand.

This means that completion times climb e'er college, and players who want their 100% completion stats and/or Platinum Trophies will demand to spend an extensive amount of time on their games.

xv Fallout: New Vegas: 27 - 128 Hours

I of the most pop games in the Fallout franchise, Fallout: New Vegas has no shortage of side quests and secrets to go on players coming back for hours past the finish of the principal story. With a massive skill tree to fill out and all kinds of weapons and items to collect, New Vegas has something for just virtually every kind of Fallout player.

Additionally, Fallout: New Vegas has multiple DLCs that fans herald as some of the best in the franchise, pushing the mail-game potential even further in the stratosphere for players who never desire to level the comfort of the wasteland.

14 Kingdom Come: Deliverance: 41 - 128 Hours

A game that prides itself on its ultra-realism, there's a lot to explore in Kingdom Come; seeing all the game has to offering can take some dedication. The learning bend for the game's systems is a bit steep, especially early, and many of the "realistic" features can make regular exploration movement quite slowly.

That said, when stories and side-quest practice rear their heads, there's enough of engaging content to be explored, especially for people with an interest in the history of Europe in the Middle Ages. A warning to those seeking 100% completion, though: this is a game that does non let the role player continue playing after the terminal mission and credits, so everything must be done before finishing the main story.

thirteen Valheim: 69 - 133 Hours

valheim island forest fortress base

As the out-of-nowhere hit of 2021, Valheim took the net by storm at the start of the twelvemonth and continues to grow with an active player base to this twenty-four hour period. What's most impressive most Valheim is that it'southward even so in Early on Access, and yet there are reams and reams of content.

As a sandbox game with crafting and construction, players tin theoretically play for as long as they desire without ever running out of content. Yet, the game does have bosses and a generally accustomed route of progression. The more players build upwardly their equipment and bases, the more there is to do, and futurity updates promise to push their options even higher in the hereafter.

12 Assassinator's Creed Odyssey: 43 - 136 Hours

One of the longest-running open-world franchises, Assassin's Creed has some long games under its chugalug, merely Odyssey just out inched Valhalla by a small handful of hours. The map of Odyssey is the largest in the franchise due to a lot of it being the seas that split up Hellenic republic'southward many islands.

Dotted around Aboriginal Greece are a massive number of varied locations that can go on playing exploring for ages. Be they viewpoints, towns, encampments, or tombs and foes to fight, exploring the open world can lead to all sorts of incredible rewards for the players who put the effort in.

xi Satisfactory: ninety -158 Hours

Two players looking at their work in Satisfactory

Some other Early on Admission game, to run across why this game is and then expansive, players need only expect at the ridiculous size of the factories some players have put together. Tracing its routes back to the technological mods of Minecraft similar Tekkit or Feed The Beast, Satisfactory is all about building things to make more things, to make more than things, and then on forever.

It has a bit of Civilization-syndrome, where players tin lose hours to it without truly realizing how much time has passed, which is part of what pushes this game's playtime so high. To attain the heights of the tardily-game, players must expand their production line to incredible proportions, making hundreds upon thousands of every car office the game has to offering, which is going to take a hell of a long time.

10 Cherry-red Dead Redemption 2: 48 - 167 Hours

Given how long-awaited (and very expensive) Red Expressionless Redemption two was, the resulting game needed to be worth the wait, not to mention enough to satisfy players for another decade-long gap between games. On that front, it well-nigh certainly delivered.

Widely regarded equally one of the best-looking games of its generation, Red Dead Redemption 2 had miles upon miles of expansive and cute terrain to explore and fall off your horse in. Exploring the world also yields plenty of distractions and side quests for players that will come across them make a real bear upon on the frontier.

9 The Long Nighttime: twenty - 171 Hours

the long dark, steam screenshot, removed from geforce now

A survival/crafting experience that challenges players to survive as long as they possibly can is going to have a lot of content on offer because sandbox games similar this put the onus on the player to make their own fun past a sure point.

The game'south story can be completed in relatively brusk order, just the game's existent length comes from the overall survival experience of making shelter, exploring the unforgiving globe, and making the necessary plans and sacrifices to survive out in the wild.

8 The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild: 55 - 188 Hours

Igneo Talus Titan in Breath of the Wild

I of the most interesting details revealed in the build-up to Jiff Of The Wild'due south release was the fact that players could go to Hyrule Castle and challenge the concluding boss of the game from more or less the very beginning of the game.

However, that meant the opposite was as well true, that players could explore the entire globe and do everything there is to do before fifty-fifty sniffing in Calamity Ganon'south Direction. Exist it the 120 Shrines, the iv Diving Beasts, hundreds of recipes, or 900 Korok Seeds, players have a virtually countless checklist of tasks to complete if they so choose.

7 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: 55 - 190 Hours

Undvik in The Witcher 3

While the world of The Witcher 3 may non be among the biggest, it is about certainly ane of the most jam-packed. While the main story features an epic tale of one thousand proportions, what makes the world of The Witcher 3 so engaging in the level of sheer detail on display.

Almost every side quest goes so much deeper than merely "become here, kill affair". Players tin can absolutely play information technology like that if they want, but such a huge amount of joy comes from exploring the "why" of each quest, information which is the game is all too happy to give to players who go looking for it.

vi Fallout iv: 31 - 218 Hours

Massive Sanctuary Settlement

Pushing the boundaries with almost another 100 hours on peak of the adjacent longest game, Fallout 4 has the most content of any Fallout game. With by far the biggest map, information technology'south no surprise that the developers were able to stuff this game with more content than any of its predecessors.

Wandering around the wasteland for even a short corporeality of time will permit players discover an interesting location with its own story behind how information technology reached the state it's in today (other than the nukes). Many of these locations aren't fifty-fifty marked every bit official locations on the map, significant fifty-fifty the most experienced Fallout players may not have seen everything there is to encounter.

Spiky black armor with red accent colors in Elder Scrolls 5 Skyrim

Fallout is the only Bethesda franchise that is stuffed with content to the point of bursting. The globe of The Elderberry Scrolls is just equally, if not more, filled with content and deep lore for players to explore and learn most.

Skyrim is one of the biggest games in the franchise in this aspect. While the world may not be staggeringly large past modernistic standards, it is one of the nearly detailed. Dungeons of all shapes and sizes litter the landscape to the point where players will practically exist falling over them as they explore. What makes each of these dungeons great is that they all accept their own lore associated with them. Even some insignificant brigand camps have notes and journals that tell the long and winding backstories of how they got there and what they plan to do...earlier the histrion chops their heads off.

4 Xenoblade Chronicles X: 68 - 274 Hours

Xenoblade Chronicles X gameplay

The Xenoblade Chronicles series is one known for its lengthy gameplay, with both its predecessor and its sequel having hefty playtime of their own. The longest of the bunch is the Wii U exclusive Xenoblade Chronicles 10, which is a bit of a dissimilar game from the balance in the franchise.

The game's world borrows names from the real globe just injects the compages and lore established in the franchise into them, making a world that is a more intriguing ane to explore. With the game split beyond five different continents, the world is non merely huge in terms of size but variety.

3 Kenshi: 76 - 302 Hours

Kenshi is a game that decided to be as hands-off with the player as information technology tin can possibly be. Once players become through the character creator, they are permit out into the game world and are given no real indication of what to do.

While this can be frustrating for players who are used to games giving them quest markers, this approach allows Kenshi to be one of the most wonderfully open-ended games ever made, where players actually can practice whatever they want. They can become a chief thief, or a wandering trader, or a mighty warrior, or all of the above if they want, and it lets the player create the narrative themselves. With a huge and densely-packed world, reaching the lesser of the barrel with this game is something that will probably never happen for most players.

two Sea of Thieves: 116 - 322 Hours

sea-of-thieves

In a game with such a vast open ocean to explore and a seemingly endless corporeality of treasure to exist institute, there's e'er more to be washed. One of the best games for screwing effectually in an open up world with friends, Sea of Thieves ensures there'due south ever something for players to do.

The game has been online in agile development since 2018, with major content being added several times a year. With development promising to continue for a good while nevertheless, it won't be long before Sea of Thieves becomes the almost content-rich open-world game in existence, rivaled just past traditional MMOs, which boast thousands of hours of content.

morrowind seyda neen

Bethesda's reputation for deep and expansive games didn't come up around by accident, and ane of the clearest signs that this philosophy would be taken into all of their principal RPG titles was the release of Morrowind. This was the first championship in The Elder Scrolls franchise to truly resemble what fans know information technology equally today, and it was ane of the most packed games of all fourth dimension.

While every game in The Elderberry Scrolls franchise gives the player the freedom to explore the world almost immediately, the more modern games are frequently a scrap more hand-belongings in how they practise it. The games don't force players in a specific direction, but the quests vaguely push them towards areas of the world. While Morrowind has a bit of this, it's far vaguer than in mod iterations, with no quest markers, just verbal or written directions for players to find their fashion around the massive world.

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