How Are Game Times Estimated on HowLongToBeat?

HowLongToBeat (HLTB) builds its time estimates from player-submitted completion times, not from developer statements or reviewer playthroughs. When you finish a game, you can submit how long it took and which play style you followed; the site then aggregates those submissions into the Main Story, Main + Extra, Completionist, and Combined figures shown on each game card. The numbers are therefore a community average of real playthroughs, and they shift as more people submit. Treat them as a well-populated estimate rather than a fixed spec.

Where the data comes from

The core input is user submissions. Each submission records a completion time and a category, so the site can separate a rushed main-story run from a completionist grind instead of blending them into one misleading number.

The page evidence supports this directly: the site invites users to "submit your game times," and the community activity feed shows ongoing volume — 170 games added, 7,176 games updated, 19,968 new backlogs, and 5,358 games completed in a 48-hour window. That churn is why a game's listed hours can move over time.

How the categories are defined

HLTB asks you to pick the category that best matches how you played, then reports an estimate for that style. The site's own definitions:

Because each category is estimated separately, the gap between them is often large. On the same page, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt shows 51½ hours for Main Story, 104 hours for Main + Extra, and 175 hours for Completionist. Red Dead Redemption 2 runs 51 hours, 84½ hours, and 195 hours across the same three tiers. That spread is the point: it tells you which number applies to how you intend to play.

Why the numbers are averages, not exact answers

Each figure is an aggregate of many individual submissions, so it reflects the typical player rather than any single run. A few things follow from that:

• Your result will differ. Skill, difficulty setting, exploration habits, and whether you replay sections all push your time away from the average.
• Sparse games are less reliable. A game with thousands of submissions gives a stable estimate; a newly added title with few reports may show blank or provisional values. On the page, several recent Game Pass entries list "--" for every category, meaning no usable data yet.
• The estimate updates. As the "Games Updated" count suggests, entries are revised continuously as new times come in.

How to use the estimates well

1. Pick the category that matches your intent. If you only want the credits, read Main Story. If you do side content, read Main + Extra. Only use Completionist if you actually plan to 100% it.
2. Check the sample size indirectly. A game with a long history and heavy community activity (like the Witcher 3 or Red Dead Redemption 2 examples) will have a more settled number than a brand-new release.
3. Compare against your own history. If you consistently run longer than HLTB's Main Story figure, mentally adjust upward.
4. Use it for planning, not precision. The site frames the numbers as "our best estimate for how long it will take you to complete the game" — an estimate, not a guarantee.

Common questions

Are the times official? No. They come from player submissions aggregated by the site, not from publishers.

Why do the categories differ so much? Because they measure different play styles. A completionist run of Red Dead Redemption 2 (195 hours) is nearly four times the main-story figure (51 hours).

Why does a game show no time? It likely has too few submissions to produce a reliable estimate, which is common for very new or niche titles.

Can I contribute? Yes — submitting your own completion time is how the dataset grows and stays current.