The Legend Of Zelda Game That Takes The Longest To Beat
One of the most popular and recognizable IPs in all of gaming, Nintendo's "The Legend of Zelda" includes dozens of games that have spanned nearly four decades. Centered around the player-controlled Link and Princess Zelda, the action-adventure series has earned a reputation for its ever-evolving gameplay loop and immersive stories —an approach that typically offers lengthy affairs that will keep gamers preoccupied for a while.
Having persisted through several different eras of the industry's history, "The Legend of Zelda" has transformed over the years. While early titles resembled the top-down, linear action-adventure titles of the period, recent releases such as "Breath of the Wild" have adopted open-world formulas that have reinvented the series and established the blueprint for future entries. Because of the diversity of the IP, many of its installments vary in terms of the time players can squeeze out of them. But which of Nintendo's iconic "Zelda" games can players spend the most hours with?
If you're a fan, the answer won't surprise you.
Breath of the Wild blows the other Zelda games out of the water
"The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" stands as the longest game in the entire series. None of the other entries even come close. According to HowLongToBeat, it takes gamers an average of 50 hours to complete just the main story. Should players wish to engage in side quests as well, the length nearly doubles to 98 hours. And if one is a completionist, "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" can take as many as 189 hours to finish. Whether players go into "Breath of the Wild" just for the story or wish to explore every nook and cranny that Hyrule has to offer, they shouldn't expect to spend less than the equivalent of just over two days with the product.
The second longest "The Legend of Zelda" game is "Skyward Sword," which takes an estimated 38 hours to complete if players finish only the main story. Combined with side quests, players will beat "Skyward Sword" in roughly 46.5 hours. And if 100% completion is their goal, "Skyward Sword" takes about 58 hours — a mere 8 hours more than the core campaign in "Breath of the Wild" on its own.