How long is Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom? Hours needed to beat
You may need a few months.
Before we start, it’s worth pointing out that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a long game. You already knew that, didn’t you? The question is, just exactly how long is the Breath of the Wild sequel?
The previous game is well-known for being a bit of a beast in terms of hours needed to complete – and its sequel is, unsurprisingly enough, no different. With so many new shrines to visit, you could spend countless hours just exploring without even progressing the story. And that doesn't even include the Korok Seeds.
While some aspects of the sequel feel quicker (there are some nifty time-savers compared to the first game), there is so much more to do and see. The open world is dense with life and activity and you can always put aside hours to see what Link can cook and craft this time around.
You’ll need to put in quite some time to complete the game’s main story, let alone finish off all of its side quests, mop up its long list of Skyview Towers, collect every Geoglyph memory, and more.
Read on below to find out how long Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is and how many hours it should take to beat.
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How long is Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom?
Based on the experience of various different reviewers, you should be able to complete The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in around 60-80 hours. That's if you focus mainly on the story but stop to smell the roses every now and then and take in a few side quests.
We’ve seen players claim that it takes as little as 50 hours, but that is for those who rush through the story missions and don’t take their time at all to take in anything extra the game has to offer. Playing like that, we feel, is missing the point of the game.
We’d wager that the average player will feel ‘done’ with Tears of the Kingdom at or around 100-120 hours. Playing the game for this long should allow you to take your time with the story, side quests, and complete a bunch of shrines and find a load of Korok seeds.
Play the game this long and you would have seen most of what Link’s latest adventure has to offer without feeling the need to 100 per cent complete absolutely everything.
Tears of the Kingdom is a vast open-world adventure. There is so much content outside of the main storyline that you could easily spend hundreds of hours exploring Hyrule and the skies above in an attempt to see and do absolutely everything. Even then, players will probably still be discovering secrets in the years ahead.
There is ample scope to spend as long as you like in Tears of the Kingdom doing whatever you want.
Want to tinker around with vehicle creation to see what you can come up with? Sure. Want to explore every last nook and cranny of the game’s many caves and underground? Why not. Ultimately, it’s entirely up to how you play the game in how long it takes to complete.
Read more on Tears of the Kingdom:
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Authors
Toby Saunders is a freelance writer specialising in Video Game journalism. He has a wealth of experience in the field and is published on many different websites including PCGamesN, Nintendo Life and Pocket Tactics. He has a degree in Film Studies (he gets to write about Film and TV occasionally, too).
