How Long Does It Take To Beat Cyberpunk 2077?

While it may be hard to believe, Cyberpunk 2077's Dec. 10 release date is now imminent. Cyberpunk 2077 has been in the public eye for years, so with its Dec. 7 review embargo lifted, expectations formed during that time can now finally be confirmed or denied. The length of the game has remained far from the most contentious topic among discussions about the game in the build-up to its release, but is nevertheless among the key information now publicly available. 

The short answer is that Cyberpunk 2077 features a brief campaign by AAA standards, accompanied a comparatively enormous number of side quests that can not only significantly increase overall playtime, but even impact the main story.

Gene Park, in his review of the game for The Washington Post, recounted reaching the end of Cyberpunk 2077's campaign in 15 hours. However, Park explained that this was, more-or-less, the fastest possible time in which he could have done so, the result of attempting to reach its ending in a limited review window. He compared its Night City setting to the Yakuza franchise's Kamurocho, which is to say, jam-packed with things to do. While Park didn't attribute a number of hours to its side content, he described his experience as "a narrow slice of what the title offers, with dozens of unexplored activities left for me to finish."

IGN's review, meanwhile, suggested that, while Park reached at least one of the game's possible endings, investing further time into story-relevant side content could have drastically altered its conclusion. IGN reviewer Tom Marks recounted first reaching the game's endpoint in 20 hours. Then, upon returning to its final moments again after an additional 20 hours of sidequesting, the number of possible endings had more than doubled. Parks theorized that, 45 hours in, the game still offered loads more to do.

Marks also explained how player choices impact available content. That is to say, in order to experience 100% of Cyberpunk's side quests, players will have to replay at least certain portions of the game, following different narrative branches in each playthrough.

In his review for Kotaku, Riley MacLeod likewise detailed a "a jaw-dropping abundance of side activities." He described how these can even sometimes overlap, a phone call from one NPC arriving in the midst of an entirely unrelated sidequest for an unaffiliated party.

CD Projekt Red promised an open world with tons of side content, and based on early impressions, the game delivers din that regard. While a complete playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077 could amount to 15 hours of gameplay, it should take well more than double that to experience even just a meaningful chunk of all it has to offer.