The Xbox and Bethesda Showcase, as well as the extended event, exploded with tons of new information aboutStarfield—Bethesda’s first new IP in decades. Many are no doubt excited even if everything they’ve learned hasn’t been perfect, but of course, nothing ever is. Among details aboutStarfield’s story, combat, exploration, and more, Todd Howard also confirmed how long it takes to beat.
Howard had previously commented thatStarfieldis about 20% bigger thanSkyrimandFallout 4, withStarfieldtaking a total of 30-40 hours to beat(in terms of the main story). Everyone knows that Skyrim and Fallout 4 can take hundreds of hours to explore fully, but in terms of just completing the main story in each game, they are much shorter. It seems, ultimately, Howard’s comment is spot on withSkyrim, but perhaps gives a good low bar withFallout 4.
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Starfield – How Long to Beat vs. Fallout 4
When compared to how long it takes to beatSkyrim,Starfieldprobably pushes closer to 40 hours. That’s because the average length required to beatSkyrimis 34 hours, meaning +20% of that is 40. It’s not an exact science by any means, and there will always be fluctuations depending on player experience, but it’s a solid baseline to consider the main story length anyway.
However, that quote doesn’t work as well withFallout 4even if it’s a little close. On average, it takes about 27 hours to beat the game, and 20% of that is about 5. That means, if onlyFallout 4were factored in,Starfieldwould probably take about 32 hours to beat. Of course, that’s just 2 more hours than Howard’s comment onStarfield’s 30-40 hour comment.
Thus, what’s interesting here is how Fallout 4 likely resembles the low end of a Starfield playthrough (main story only) coming in at 30-32 hours.Skyrimresembles the high end of aStarfieldplaythroughat 40 hours. It’s a pretty good high/low point of comparison for Starfield, but it’s uncertain if that 20% applies to the whole game.
That’s probably not the case givenStarfieldhas 1000s of planetsfor exploration. The story might be more focused, but the possibilities are endless in comparison toFalloutandSkyrim. What’s clear is that fans can probably spend hundreds of hours inStarfield, perhaps even more than these others, but good storytelling, quests, and more are all packaged in too.
Starfieldis in development for PC and Xbox Series X.
