Longest Open-World RPGs That Take Forever To Complete

Traditionally, open-world RPGs are some of the longest games there are, requiring real dedication from players. What’s more, in many cases the base game is just the beginning. Going for the fullest editions available to experience absolutely everything the title has to offer can easily stretch to over 200 hours, resulting in months of intense play before finally rolling the credits.

For this list, I decided to focus on the fullest editions of some of the longest open-world RPGs available that can take forever to beat, ranking them by playtime. I use the “Main+Extra” figures from HowLongToBeat for each, as this is the most reliable metric for the average time people spend with these games. Almost no one focuses exclusively on the main story path, but they also rarely strive to do absolutely everything for 100% completion.

That said, the referenced data may not align perfectly with your experience, and it may take considerably longer depending on your playstyle, so keep that in mind. In my experience, it usually takes me up to 50 hours longer to clear open-world games like the ones listed below.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition

Hours of Play on Average: 150

Features:

• The Witcher 3 – 100 hours
• Hearts of Stone – 15 hours
• Blood and Wine – 30 hours
• Smaller Free DLC (including extra quests) – 3 hours
• Songs of the Past – TBA

A pretty rare case in the industry, the so-called “Complete Edition” for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt turned out incomplete years later. With the upcoming Songs of the Past expansion on the horizon, one of the longest games of its genre is about to become even bigger. CDPR has already teased that the game’s third expansion will be in line with what fans have grown to expect from the studio’s past works, like Blood and Wine or Phantom Liberty.

Nevertheless, even without Songs of the Past, which will probably add 20 to 30 hours of playtime, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition is a colossal offering, almost unmatched in the industry to this day. What’s best, it’s also an extremely rare case where the quantity of content is matched by its quality, as both the Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine expansions are considered some of the best additions of all time.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – Complete Edition

Hours of Play on Average: 145

Features:

• AC Valhalla – 100 hours
• Wrath of the Druids – 15 hours
• The Siege of Paris – 10 hours
• Dawn of Ragnarök – 15 hours
• Smaller Free DLC (including extra quests) – 5 hours

If there’s a game that came the closest to The Witcher 3’s grand scope, it’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, boasting the biggest post-launch support among Ubisoft open-world titles to date. AC Valhalla received three substantial expansions, with Dawn of Ragnarök even released outside of the Season Pass due to the game’s enormous success. If only AC Shadows got more post-launch content rather than just one Claws of Awaji DLC.

While AC Valhalla is often criticized for the base game’s bloat, featuring several explorable maps that are way too huge for their own good and a main story that suffers as a result of largely separate story arcs for each region, the expansions turned out to be a pleasant surprise. They strike just the right balance between the size of the new regions and the density of quests and activities. Wrath of the Druids is my personal favorite, with its mystical atmosphere, menacing foes, and a strong story that’s easy to stay invested in thanks to its memorable characters.

Elden Ring Tarnished Edition

Hours of Play on Average: 140

Features:

• Elden Ring – 100 hours
• Shadow of the Erdtree – 40 hours

Technically not available just yet, Tarnished Edition is a fancy title for a bundle that includes Elden Ring and the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, both of which have been available to fans outside of Nintendo platforms for over two years now. Easily one of the best and biggest games of this entire generation, Elden Ring stands as comparable to The Witcher 3’s achievement in the open-world genre, perfectly placing the highlights of soulslike games into one of the most interesting and beautiful seamless maps to explore.

Despite the undeniable breadth of content on offer, SOTE still has a somewhat mixed reputation. It has been criticized for its overtuned difficulty in some boss encounters, the questionable Scadutree mechanics that can slow down subsequent runs, and the lack of a proper ending that some players expected. To me though, there are no real issues here. I’d vote Shadow of the Erdtree the best and biggest story expansion ever made — yes, even better than Blood and Wine.

Hours of Play on Average: 140

Features:

• Skyrim – 110 hours
• Dawnguard – 10 hours
• Hearthfire – 5 hours
• Dragonborn – 15 hours

Actually the oldest game among these, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim still stands strong over the years, firmly remaining among the longest and most-played open-world titles of all time. Still considered Bethesda’s magnum opus, Skyrim has been re-released countless times on almost every platform imaginable since 2011. While the company recently reaffirmed active development of The Elder Scrolls 6, it sounds like the game is still pretty far away — meaning it’s time for yet another Skyrim playthrough.

Skyrim has enjoyed the pretty standard post-launch support expected of its kind, offering two sizable story expansions with new regions such as Solstheim, and a smaller one, Hearthfire, mostly focused on the game’s leisure side, like acquiring land and building houses. Given how often Bethesda has updated the title, it would definitely be interesting to see more story content added over the years, like CDPR is doing now with The Witcher 3. As it stands, mods remain the only real source of new quests and fresh content for the game’s long-term fans.

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This article originally appeared on GameRant and is republished here with permission.