How long is Starfield? Main story length & completionist run

Kurt Perry
Large spaceship flying toward planet in Starfield.

Bethesda RPGs tend to be quite large in scope, so how long is the main story in Starfield? Here’s what we know about the campaign length and how long it takes to complete everything.

After a lot of anticipation, players are finally getting to dive into the epic space adventure of Starfield by exploring planets, traveling across distant solar systems, and customizing their ship in the sprawling RPG.

There’s a huge amount of content on offer that will keep players busy but you may be wondering exactly how long you’ll be spending in the game, whether that’s just on the main campaign or doing a full completionist run.

With that in mind, here’s exactly how much time you can expect to spend in Starfield.

New Atlantis City from Starfield as seen in 2023 Starfield Showcase event.
New Atlantis is one of the four large cities that will feature in Starfield.

How long is Starfield? Main campaign run

The main campaign for Starfield is expected to take between 30-40 hours to complete during an average playthrough. This estimate was given by producer Todd Howard during the 2022 Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase.

Comparing that to some other Bethesda titles, HowLongToBeat lists Skyrim – Special Edition’s Main Story as taking 26 hours to finish and Fallout 4’s as 27 hours.

Not only is the game longer than Bethesda’s previous releases, but it’s no doubt going to take far longer than Howard’s estimate for completionists looking to see everything it has to offer.

How long is Starfield? Completionist run

While no concrete answer has been given for a completionist run in Starfield, it appears players can expect hundreds of hours of entertainment.

A completionist run of Skyrim can easily take over 200 hours while doing the same on Fallout 4 can take over 150. Assuming Bethesda’s latest game keeps to form, exploring all of Starfield’s content will take hundreds of hours.

This was reaffirmed by Bethesda’s own Pete Hines at Gamescom 2023. “I’m at 150-160 hours on my current playthrough and I haven’t even come close… There’s so much stuff I have intentionally not done. No matter how you want to play there is so much for you to do in this game.”

That’s everything you need to know about how long Starfield is! For more content on the game, check out our guides below:

Starfield all main story missions | All skills | All factions | All console commands | All romance options | All achievements | Level cap | How to remove bounty | How to fast travel | Easy XP | Easy credits | Best traits | How to get a house | Is Starfield on PS5? | Is Starfield on Nintendo Switch? | How to add DLSS | How to pick locks | How to customize ship | Starfield difficulty settings explained

About The Author

Kurt Perry is a British games writer who started at Dexerto in April 2023. He graduated from Staffordshire University in 2019 with a BA in Games Journalism and PR. Prior to joining Dexerto, Kurt contributed 900 articles for PC Invasion including over 350 guides. He's an all-rounder who is particularly knowledgeable about Call of Duty, Destiny, and Pokemon.