At the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase, the two companies finally unveiled 15 minutes of Starfield gameplay. It looks a little at the exploration, gave a small glimpse at combat, showed off the spaceship customization and flight, and dived a little into the game’s character creation. There’s certainly some promise in there, though many were not impressed visually, and it’s nice to finally see the highly anticipated Starfield in action.
Bethesda’s Todd Howard also recently commented on how long it takes to beat Starfield. He’d previously stated that it was about 20% bigger than Fallout 4 or Skyrim, but more recently revealed that Starfield takes about 30-40 hours to beat. This is in reference to its main story, but like many Bethesda open-world games, that’s only a portion of the game.
How Long to Beat Starfield vs. Skyrim
It seems safe to say that completing most of the faction quests in Starfield could push that length into the hundreds of hours, but as far as the main quest goes, Howard’s comments line up specifically well. The average length to beat Skyrim’s main quest is about 34 hours, and if Starfield’s main quest is 20% bigger, that puts it on the higher end of Howard’s comment: 40 hours.
Thus, it seems that Starfield’s main quest will likely fall on that higher end, at least based on Howard’s approximation. Once Starfield releases in 2023 and it’s in players’ hands, it’ll be interesting to see how long the average length actually is, but this does seemingly put it into the same ballpark as Skyrim. What will really put the nail in the coffin is how much extra content Starfield features, as Skyrim has several factions that add tons of hours to the game alongside other side quests.
Bethesda has confirmed a few of Starfield’s factions, but it hasn’t likely given them a look at all of them yet. Constellation is seemingly tied to the main story, while the United Colonies and Free Star Collective could be reminiscent of Skyrim’s Civil War. The Crimson Fleet and Ryujin Industries have also been confirmed, but it’s hard to say what their exact role will be.
Nonetheless, it seems Starfield will be on par with Skyrim. It has even been confirmed that Starfield will get DLC expansions, though that’s not really a factor here. But Starfield is likely to be fully content complete at launch, if Skyrim is anything to go by.
Starfield releases in 2023 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.