The Xbox and Bethesda Showcase, as well as the extended event, exploded with tons of new information about Starfield—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 about Starfield’s story, combat, exploration, and more, Todd Howard also confirmed how long it takes to beat.
Howard had previously commented that Starfield is about 20% bigger than Skyrim and Fallout 4, with Starfield taking 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 with Skyrim, but perhaps gives a good low bar with Fallout 4.
Starfield – How Long to Beat vs. Fallout 4
When compared to how long it takes to beat Skyrim, Starfield probably pushes closer to 40 hours. That’s because the average length required to beat Skyrim is 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 with Fallout 4 even 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 only Fallout 4 were factored in, Starfield would probably take about 32 hours to beat. Of course, that’s just 2 more hours than Howard’s comment on Starfield’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. Skyrim resembles the high end of a Starfield playthrough at 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 given Starfield has 1000s of planets for exploration. The story might be more focused, but the possibilities are endless in comparison to Fallout and Skyrim. What’s clear is that fans can probably spend hundreds of hours in Starfield, perhaps even more than these others, but good storytelling, quests, and more are all packaged in too.
Starfield is in development for PC and Xbox Series X.