How long is Elden Ring at two evenings a week
Elden Ring’s main route had a 30-hour target. HowLongToBeat’s Main Story average is 60. Why the gap exists, and what it means at two nights a week.
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Prices, platforms and subscriptions checked on October 27, 2026.
Elden Ring’s Main Story averages 60 hours on HowLongToBeat, from player-submitted times, which comes to 30 two-hour evenings. Start it only if it’s your genre, because most of those evenings go to retrying hard fights and exploring ground the route never requires.
If this is your first game of its kind, plan around the Main + Extras average of 101.5 hours instead. That is 51 evenings, or 25.5 weeks to the credits if you play two nights a week.
Elden Ring’s three finish lines, in evenings
Seventy-six hours separate the shortest finish line from the longest.
| Measure (HowLongToBeat, player-submitted) | Hours | Evenings (hours ÷ 2) |
|---|---|---|
| Main Story | 60 | 30 |
| Main + Extras | 101.5 | 51 |
| Completionist | 136 | 68 |
Base game only. Evenings are rounded to the nearest half evening.
Main Story is the required route plus whatever detours a player took on the way. If you tend to follow every cave and ruin you pass, the middle row describes your run better than the top one. The same three measures sit behind every entry in games sorted by hours to finish.
Completionist is a separate decision. Make it after your first ending, once you know whether another 76 hours of the same loop appeals.
Weeks to the credits at one to five evenings a week
Say you play on Tuesday and Saturday nights. The second row of this table is your calendar.
| Evenings per week (2 hours each) | Main Story (60 h) | Main + Extras (101.5 h) | Both main stories with the expansion (85.5 h) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30 | 51 | 43 |
| 2 | 15 | 25.5 | 21.5 |
| 3 | 10 | 17 | 14.5 |
| 5 | 6 | 10 | 8.5 |
Weeks to finish. Each figure is the measure’s evenings divided by evenings per week, rounded to the nearest half week. Hours are HowLongToBeat player-submitted averages.
Every figure assumes each planned evening happens. Lose one session in four and a 15-week plan becomes 20.
If you usually finish games faster or slower than HowLongToBeat’s averages, a pace multiplier from games you’ve already finished adjusts every number above at once.
Why the official 30 hours became 60
In January 2022, a month before launch, producer Yasuhiro Kitao told the Taipei Game Show that FromSoftware’s development target for the main route was 30 hours. He added that results would vary widely from player to player.
HowLongToBeat’s own post in March 2022 put the average at 46 hours, with 107 for completionists. The same measure now reads 60.
Both figures can be accurate at once. A development target describes someone who already knows the way. A launch-month average can only include players who reached the credits inside that month, so it starts with the fastest finishers and climbs as slower runs are logged.
Most of the gap goes to repeat attempts. Death sends you back to the last Site of Grace you rested at, and you cross the same ground to try again, so a boss that takes ten tries costs ten walks back.
For how much weight any single community average can carry, this check on HowLongToBeat’s accuracy looks at the measure itself.
Does Elden Ring work in one-hour sessions?
Yes, provided you end each session at a grace.
Elden Ring has no pause in normal play, so leaving the controller mid-fight is a gamble. Quitting from the System menu saves where you stand, and resting at a grace gives you a fixed point to start from next time.
The weeks table assumes two-hour evenings. At one hour per session, every week count doubles for the same number of sessions.
What Shadow of the Erdtree adds to the count
If you bought Elden Ring Tarnished Edition for Nintendo Switch 2, the expansion is already in your copy, since Tarnished Edition bundles both. That edition launched on August 28, 2026.
Shadow of the Erdtree averages 25.5 hours for Main Story on HowLongToBeat, 39.5 for Main + Extras and 51 for Completionist. In evenings, that is 13, 20 and 25.5. Both main stories together come to 85.5 hours, or 43 evenings.
The expansion opens only once you have progressed well into the base game, so its hours land after most of the base route.
Before you buy: Microsoft Store’s Shadow of the Erdtree Edition listing states that the expansion requires the base game product and warns against duplicate purchases. If you already own Elden Ring, buy the expansion alone. The Tarnished Pack sold on other platforms adds new armor and Torrent appearance features, with no new area, so it changes none of these figures.
Elden Ring Nightreign is a separate spinoff with its own length, and none of its hours count here.
Plan around Main + Extras, then set a stop date
Pick the measure that matches how you play.
- First game of this kind: plan on Main + Extras, 51 evenings.
- FromSoftware veteran who sticks to the route: Main Story, 30 evenings.
- Completionist: commit to 68 evenings only after your first ending, and read whether 100% completion is worth the extra hours before you do.
Then write down the week your plan says you’ll see the credits, and add a quarter to it. If you’re nowhere near the end by that date, putting the game down is a reasonable outcome. If the table already looks too long for your year, games with a similar feel that finish under 40 hours cover the same ground in fewer weeks.
