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how long is starfield

Starfield’s main story takes roughly 18–25 hours if you focus on the critical path, but seeing a lot of side content can easily push you past 80–150 hours or more.

How Long Is Starfield? (Quick Scoop)

Main Story Length

Most players report that if you beeline the main quest, you’re looking at something like a weekend-or-two kind of game, not a months-long grind.

  • Main quest only: about 17–21.5 hours on average.
  • Many guides round this to “around 20 hours” for a straightforward run.
  • Some players rushing on easy difficulty report finishing in roughly 15–20 hours.

Think of it as: if you ignore almost everything off the golden path, Starfield is closer to a shorter Bethesda main story, similar in scope to Fallout or Skyrim’s core questline.

Full Experience / Completionist Time

Where Starfield really stretches out is everything around the main story: faction questlines, side quests, exploration, ship building, outposts, and New Game Plus.

  • Main story + some factions and side quests: ~50–80 hours is very common.
  • “See most of what’s there” (lots of side content, exploration): ~100+ hours is totally normal.
  • 100% style completion (tons of systems, side quests, NG+ runs): estimates hover around 150+ hours and can easily go higher if you’re thorough.

One typical player take: finishing the main story, doing several faction questlines, and dabbling in NG+ can already get you near or past the 100‑hour mark.

Why Estimates Vary So Much

Players and sites differ because how you play Starfield completely changes the clock.

Key factors:

  1. Difficulty and pace
    • Easy difficulty + skipping dialogue and exploration = closer to 15–20 hours for the story.
 * Higher difficulty, full cutscenes, and careful looting can push the same story toward 30–40 hours.
  1. Side content tolerance
    • If you only care about “story credits rolled,” you’ll stop early.
    • If you love wandering, scanning planets, and hoovering up side quests, it becomes a sprawling time sink.
  1. New Game Plus
    • Starfield features NG+ loops; once you know the story, a focused NG+ run can be ~90 minutes–3 hours per loop if you sprint it.
 * Some players loop several times just to see how choices and builds change things, effectively multiplying hours.

Starfield Length vs Other Bethesda Games (Context)

Here’s a quick look at how Starfield compares to previous Bethesda RPGs on “main story only” time.

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Game Main story (approx.) Notes
Starfield ~18–25 hours (can be shorter if rushed)Massive side content and NG+ loops can push it past 100+ hours.
Skyrim ~34.5 hours main story.Also heavily padded by side quests and exploration.
Fallout 4 ~27 hours main story.Similar pattern: shorter core story, long side content.
Fallout 3 ~24 hours main story.Classic Bethesda structure of compact main narrative plus open-world extras.
So Starfield’s **main quest** is actually on the shorter end compared with Skyrim’s, but its overall “how long is Starfield” answer is: _as long as you want it to be_ , thanks to its scale and replay systems.

TL;DR (For Your Post)

  • “How long is Starfield?”
    • Main story: ~20 hours on average, as low as ~15 if you rush.
* Main + side stuff: 50–80 hours for many players.

* Completionist / deep dive: 100–150+ hours, especially with NG+ loops and full exploration.

Meta description idea:
Starfield’s main story is around 20 hours, but side quests, exploration, and New Game Plus can stretch the experience past 100–150 hours for dedicated players.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.