How long is Starfield?

By Jesse Lennox August 31, 2023

Bethesda Game Studio titles are notorious for being some of the most expansive and long-lasting RPGs of their type. Starfield is the first new IP from the studio in over a decade, and yet it follows the same basic formula of the company’s staple series of having just one main quest, but hundreds of sidequests, activities, and places to explore. The difference here is you’re not locked to a single landmass like in an Elder Scrolls game, but have an entire universe to explore. Before you get in the pilot seat and blast off to adventure, it’s best make sure you have enough supplies to last the trip. Here’s how long you can expect to spend in Starfield.

How long is Starfield?

The Starfield title screen. — Bethesda

There are a few ways to break down how long Starfield will take you. Let’s start with the easiest measurement, which is how long the main story will take. If you were to only focus on following the critical path, you could probably get through Starfield in around 20 hours. That’s a decent chunk of time, but will obviously only show you a fraction of what the game has to offer. Many people do ignore the main story in BGS games, however, we strongly recommend you see this story through before completely losing yourself to side content.

If you’re easily distracted, or just more interested in exploring the stars, establishing outposts, or playing out your fantasy of rising through the ranks of one of the various factions, then the length of your playtime will explode. We can’t claim to have done and seen everything possible in Starfield, and don’t think anyone else will be able to make that claim for a long time either. As far as meaningful content is concerned, which would be things like companion missions and doing all the faction stuff, estimating around 100 hours to get through it wouldn’t feel like an exaggeration. If you’re a completionist who really wants to live in this world doing everything possible, well, people have put over 1,000 hours into Skyrim, and there’s more to do here, so you can rest easy knowing you can play Starfield as long as you are having fun.

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Jesse Lennox loves writing, games, and complaining about not having time to write and play games. He knows the names of more…

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