The Pokémon Game That Takes The Longest To Beat

One important measure of a game's value is how long it takes to complete. Sure, quality is important. There's no doubt of that. But if a quality game only takes five to ten hours to beat, gamers are going to feel like they didn't get the bang for their buck. Thankfully, games in the Pokémon series have always delivered sizable playthroughs, both for completionists and more casual players. But, if gamers looking to maximize their enjoyment, they might be wondering, "which Pokémon game takes the longest to beat?"

Many players, including the ones in this Reddit thread, estimate that the typical game takes around 20 hours to beat. This varies based on the genre of the game and what a person means by "beat" (one could mean "how long does it take to finish the story?" or "how long does it take to 100 percent?"). When it comes to the Pokémon series, from the very first generation to the history-making "Pokémon Scarlet" and "Violet," the average playthrough is actually a bit longer, as can be seen on a search of "Pokémon" on Howlongtobeat.com. One generation of Pokémon games, however, stands out as particularly long.

Including 2022's "Pokémon: Scarlet" and "Violet," there have been nine generations of Pokémon games. Howlongtobeat.com records approximately how long it takes to beat each generation's games both in terms of 100 percent completion and when it comes to simply completing the main story. Of these, the longest games to beat are, by far, "Pokémon Diamond" and "Pearl."

For "Pokémon Diamond" and "Pearl," (the fourth generation of Pokémon main series titles) it takes 41 hours to beat the main story, 90 hours for main story and side quests, and 258 hours to 100 percent complete the game. A quick look through the series's other main titles shows none of the rest come even close. 

This isn't necessarily a good thing. Some players have complained that the "Diamond" and "Pearl" gameplay is incredibly slow. A few players have speculated this is because the two games were released early on in the history of the Nintendo DS. One gameplay video of the game with two million views on YouTube certainly shows as much, with the health bar taking an inordinate amount of time to deplete. According to the user who posted the video, this slow gameplay didn't inhibit his enjoyment, however.

"Everything about this damn game is so slow. Still the best pokemon generation anyway no cap," the video's caption read.