How Long to Beat

[Kamako]

For anyone unfamiliar,
How Long to Beat (HLTB) is a website where you name a game and are given estimates for how long it would take to complete that game, based on play style (i.e. casual or completionist).

The estimates HLTB provides are made from the completion times recorded by site users, which are then averaged to give a general estimate, and colour-coded from blue to red, with blue denoting high accuracy and red denoting low accuracy.

My question is: Is everybody on HLTB a speed runner?!

I like to visit HLTB when deciding whether to start a new game. But I've found these estimates are usually way, WAY off, usually by a margin of approx. ~50%.

I try to be a completionist when I play, and if HLTB estimates a completionist playthrough will take 20 hours, I can infer it'll take me 30 minimum.

I don't even think I play that slowly, but I guess I can't argue with the numbers...

What about you? Have you used HLTB? Do you find their estimates accurate? Are you a slowpoke like me, or do you blaze through games even faster?

HowLongToBeat.com | Game Lengths, Backlogs and more!

How long are your favorite video games? HowLongToBeat has the answer. Create a backlog, submit your game times and compete with your friends!

howlongtobeat.com

 

[Yousef]

I’ve actually been on the HLTB forums for quite a bit. Pretty chill place.

 

[Dany28]

Hi Kamako this is a interesting site. Thanks for share.

 

[Kamako]

I’ve actually been on the HLTB forums for quite a bit. Pretty chill place.

Oh neat! I haven't created an account yet, but I might, so I can submit estimates that skew the completion times slower and make players like me feel better xD

 

[Vexicrypt]

Knowing how slow I am with games, I just double the time I see on HLTB

 

[Yousef]

Oh neat! I haven't created an account yet, but I might, so I can submit estimates that skew the completion times slower make players like me feel better xD

Yeah man. I always found it a bit they go for the lowballed estimate. That’s not really how an average works. Leads me to mildly suspect some users use it as like bargain sale achievement hunting to show off how quickly they beat or how long they spent playing something rather than being interested in a proper estimate. Might be just me though.

 

[MasterEn]

For anyone unfamiliar,
How Long to Beat (HLTB) is a website where you name a game and are given the estimated amount of time it would take to complete that game, based on a particular play style (i.e. casual or completionist).

The estimates HLTB provides are based on completion times recorded by site users, which are then averaged to give a general estimate, and colour-coded from blue to red, with blue denoting high accuracy and red denoting low accuracy.

My question is: Is everybody on HLTB a speed runner?!

I like to visit HLTB when deciding whether to start a new game. But I've found these estimates are usually way, WAY off, usually by a margin of approx. ~50%.

I try to be a completionist when I play, and if HLTB estimates a completionist playthrough will take 20 hours, I can infer it'll take me 30.

I don't even think I play that slowly, but I guess I can't argue with the numbers...

What about you? Have you used HLTB? Do you find their estimates accurate? Are you a slowpoke like me, or do you blaze through games even faster?

HowLongToBeat.com | Game Lengths, Backlogs and more!

How long are your favorite video games? HowLongToBeat has the answer. Create a backlog, submit your game times and compete with your friends!

howlongtobeat.com

i don't think everyone on there is a speed runner. some people are pretty quick to beat a video game.
the genre of the game is also something to consider, in addition to how it was intended to be played.
pikmin 1, for example, takes 7 hours to beat. that's day 1 + 29 13 minute days. 29 x 13 = 377 minutes which is about 6.2 hours. so that + the tutorial plus cutscenes would be about 7 hours total.
pikmin 2 would take about 20 hours judging by my current playthrough that's at 15 hours. but i'm taking my time. it would probably take 12 hours playing efficiently. maybe far less.
same genre, same series, different lengths of time to play.
super mario 64 could be beaten in a day. i know that it's almost possible to beat fable 1 in a day; i've almost done that a few times.
a lot of the times that you see on there might come from people who have played the game a lot and know exactly what to do and where to go.
and don't forget, these times come from people who kept track of their time playing and want to show it off. the numbers that you see would be quite different if every one who played the games had their time tracked when playing.

 

[tn9]

i use it but mostly to make a list of games i have completed/retired. The times are often off indeed, last game i finished for example (MOH Rising Sun) have a estimated time there of 8h but if you look for full playthroughs videos you will see the game is about 4h. For longer and more complex games with a lot of side content it gets even harder to get an accurate time.

I think the main reason is since is user submitted, theres a lot of variables, some people count from the time they powered on the system, others use a stopwatch, others only count the in-game timer, some will use a guide others wont...etc.

 

[qw90700]

I use that website for years and I noticed it's sometimes correct for me with a little difference or I finish games too earlier than what this website says lol.

However I do not speedrun necessarily but I don't dilly-dally much either because I prefer to make fast progress when I play games unless I liked the game that much. My limit is finishing any game in a week, more than that otherwise I feel dread.

For example I would never imagine even for 1st time it would take that much for this game:

My first time took like 26 hours, and my other runs (because I know what I'm doing yet I really don't skip anything) took like 20 hours which is my average anymore.

In the end regardless I think this website is very valuable for me to plan my gaming sessions.

 

[DanCalibur]

I have the same impression, my times are always much longer.

 

[Kamako]

I think the main reason is since is user submitted, theres a lot of variables, some people count from the time they powered on the system, others use a stopwatch, others only count the in-game timer, some will use a guide others wont...etc.

You would think in this case the website would put up some kind of guidelines about submitting times to try and standardize them somewhat. Maybe they do already, I'm not sure.

 

[RanmyakuIchi's icon RanmyakuIchi RanmyakuIchi]

I find it varies somewhat from game to game. I've seen a number of shorter Fifth and Sixth Gen games that are realistically 3-6 hours long be listed as 8-12 hours long too. I find that HLTB is good for getting a rough estimate, but not always an exact length.

 

[qw90700]

You would think in this case the website would put up some kind of guidelines about submitting times to try and standardize them somewhat. Maybe they do already, I'm not sure.

Well this part is very useful regarding it.

 

[Kamako]

View attachment 108683

Well this part is very useful regarding it.

It is useful info, but I was referring to the guidelines of when a playthrough starts/ends. Is it when you power on the console, press start, do cut scenes/load times count, etc.

 

[PSVitaForever]

I often use it before playing (or deciding whether to play) something.
Yes, sometimes it takes more hours, but sometimes it takes more or less what the site says.
All in all, I like looking for games I would like to try and see the hours, but I never click deeper to read all the reviews and comments.

 

[qw90700]

It is useful info, but I was referring to the guidelines of when a playthrough starts/ends. Is it when you power on the console, press start, do cut scenes/load times count, etc.

I see, you want way more technical details than most people would imagine being added to these time-frames. However I think such stuff indirectly added to the overall sense of "average" and even "leisure" at least lol. I mean how else you can say "for me it took 6 hours to beat" and how it can be valid when you don't count loading times, how much it takes to deal with cutscenes and all, right?

For some games if you had don't count cutscenes, loading and whatnot they would take 6 hours to beat but with all of these it would take like 20 hours.

Additionally I do imagine speedruns that using glitches and cheats wouldn't count on this website, otherwise it would defeat the purpose!!!

 

[Rocket2049]

the site has been VERY innaccurate to my game times is all i can say
everyone plays different, some read very fast (like me) some read slowly, some just don't read and skip
some don't talk to every single npc and stuff (like me),
some people wanna beat it ASAP and will drop the difficulty or various other settings
some people use guides which will greatly speed up progress or in the case of whats more "overpowered" or any cheats or exploits being known to power through.

you absolutely need to read in detail what the players say,
go over to the "completions" tab on any game and you can see player notes and details, what console, and their ratings
as seen here on Silksong: https://howlongtobeat.com/game/65945/completions

give you a very VERY good example: pokemon
now, what's 100% completion? just beating the elite four and champion? post credits stuff?
or is 100% every single pokemon owned? which is absurdly adding game time.

and yeah almost every game i see on howlongtobeat is much longer than it took me to finish
like, people usually go by in-game time, if there isn't one then... how do they know?

there was a game recently, Gal guardians servant of the dark, i 100% it in a little under 12 hours, all done, there's nothing left to do, all (very little) side quest stuff and 100% map (it's a metroid-vania styled game)
on howlong to beat it says... 30 to 40!?
there's NOTHING to do that takes that long, and i was on normal difficulty.
i looked at youtube playthroughs, nobody took 30 hours to 100%, not even close!

so i think the site NEEDS proof of playthrough times.
but yeah i glance at howlongtobeat, but also read what people say about it, watch reviews (various youtube channels)

usually a GOOD way to see a games length is, go to youtube and type
"(name of game) full playthrough" and see how long the videos are.
using the example above, servants of the dark, the longest youtube video of the game was 16 hours,

but anyways i've had way too many times I play a game longer, like new game plus modes, other difficulties, trophy/achievement hunting, etc.
some people absolutely rushed metaphor, i took 100 hours my first run, most took 50 or less.
and i know why, i was playing on Hard already, i was talking to EVERYONE in the game.
they change dialog constantly and it's shown as a (...,) chat bubble when it's something new
and i also just explored a crap-ton, i wasn't in a rush to beat that game cause it was pretty cool.
and i did everything in one single run (besides a boss that requires newgame plus)

i've played every persona game at LEAST twice, those are 100 hours games unless you didn't actually do EVERYTHING the game has, which is impossible in one single playthrough for various in-game related reasons and limited calender days. and i know 3,4,5 have a boss you can't fight first run (persona 3 reload changed this, you can do it first run) the new game plus obviously helps a lot especially money and
so anyone saying they took less than 100 in persona 3,4 or 5 didn't do everything, guaranteed.
and if you're being 100% completionist OCD ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING 100%, you need way more than 2, since 3 4 and 5 have romance relationships, and there's 8 in persona 5 royal, meaning 8 playthroughs... just for romance scenes, you can youtube these its more sane to do that.

lot of games have a new game plus or postgame so thats a huge factor
look at dragon quest 11 S definitive edition
i took near 200 hours before i stopped playing it
there's a dumb amount of factors of game time.
the game has a 3d mode and a 2d (SNES style) mode, it's VERY much faster in 2d mode
swapping from 2d mode to 3d mode actually respawns all bosses, all chests, all loot and items,
i ran through the whole game about 4 times, combination of 2d and 3d mode, even did all the postgame stuff twice (you can start from the beginning, or any desired chapter up to postgame)

read the howlongtobeat page for that, some people stopped at "all achievements" there's more achievements IN GAME (called accolades) and i didn't even have all of them!
oh yeah there's difficulty modifiers too! stronger enemies and disabling shops, disable any armor (!!?!)

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition - Completions | HowLongToBeat

How long is Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition? HowLongToBeat has the answer. Create a backlog, submit your game times and compete with your friends!

howlongtobeat.com

 

[Tortuga]

I used this site few times to see average time
And it depend on a game, sometimes it's pretty accurate the other time completely not

 

[Not_Red]

I mostly use the site as a way to log all of the games I've completed. I don't mind if my time is shorter or longer compared to the average but there have been a couple of games I've beaten way over the expected time, most recently 7th Dragon 2020-II with a time of 48 hours with the expected time being 38 hours or so.

 

[qw90700]

usually a GOOD way to see a games length is, go to youtube and type
"(name of game) full playthrough" and see how long the videos are.

Yep I 2nd to the idea of checking Youtube playthrough videos to get another idea on how long a game probably will take, but gotta make an addendum:

Youtube playthrough videos may skip each dialogue lines too fast or too slow + the player may don't speak to everyone or check every corner as much as I do + some players does too much inventory management and some don't, et cetera et cetera factors. Regardless calculating the average of how much time it took for playthrough videos does give a decent time-frame than "How Long to Beat" website does usually.

 

[Nelson2001 Nelson2001]

Thank you for sharing this website of video game completions especially if they are very long like JRPGs or Adventure for example which can take up to less than 1 day if you play it in a row or more than 1 day with pauses (when you save the game and then continue playing).

 

[nobitakun]

The site is a complete hit and miss, because biased information can be entered by any user. I've been visiting the site for years and I've only had accurate information around 20% of the games I've played. In addition, they state that "Completionist" status means absolute everything in a game, and I laugh at this:

For anyone who completed the game with absolute everything they already know you need more than 1000h. So, their data needs to be used as an "estimate" for the main story only, the rest is random info.

 

[tn9]

You would think in this case the website would put up some kind of guidelines about submitting times to try and standardize them somewhat. Maybe they do already, I'm not sure.

i dont think theres a standard, they are very open regarding this at least thats how it was when i created my account about 10 years ago i dont think it changed though

once you're logged in you can get a timer on a specific game page

personally i dont use it as i'm not that serious about it but i only submit a time for games that have an in-game counter or short games that i can estimate well( you can add a game to your "completed" list with a blank timer) you will see people on the forums saying they just make a random guess though lol.

Regardless is a nice place

 

[bjork]

I usually check a game on there if it feels like it's taking a really long time. A buddy of mine kept saying how I needed to play the Guardians of the Galaxy game because it was so good, and I found it to be the most drawn-out slog in human history. I remember looking at HLTB and being like 'oh shit... really? That much longer?"

 

[Kamako]

View attachment 108694
For anyone who completed the game with absolute everything they already know you need more than 1000h. So, their data needs to be used as an "estimate" for the main story only, the rest is random info.

I've beaten FFX twice including Penance, all dark aeons, all primers and all ultimate weapons fully maxed, and both times it has taken me 300 - 350 hours. But if you include getting 99 of every item, then oh yeah, thousand+ hours easy.