10 Open-World Games That’ll Take You Forever To 100% Complete

Published Jul 25, 2026, 7:00 PM EDT Jared is a writer, editor, and Communications Studies graduate who loves popular nerd culture (almost anything to do with Marvel, DC, Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings) and the interactive storytelling medium. Jared's first console was the PS1, wherein he fell for Spider-Man, Spyro the Dragon, and Crash Bandicoot. Open-world games like Elden Ring are fascinating, as they’re essentially these epic adventures that are typically designed to present players with as many opportunities for meaningful exploration as possible. Of course, the definition of ‘meaningful’ is somewhat up to the individual. Some fans are hesitant to even buy a game if it doesn’t take 100s of hours to finish with 100% completion and all achievements unlocked, which is a high bar to clear for open-world games while also being rewarding and fun from beginning to end. For instance, an open world can contain 100s of hours of content by simply stuffing itself to the gills with padding, but it can result in a bloated and potentially repetitive experience. Either way, if players want to be immersed and enraptured for 100s of hours as they make their way to 100% completion, there are plenty of open-world games whose worlds will gladly whisk them away from whatever social life or responsibilities they have IRL. 10 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s vanilla base game was already gargantuan, and then came its Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions. The game can be made doubly agonizing and long if players decide that true 100% completion won’t be theirs unless they clear every pesky question mark from the map, though they’ll have their hands full already while hunting Gwent cards, acquiring every witcher school gear set, and slowly progressing through a never-ending laundry list of quests. Players may have 100% completed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in the last decade, but the game isn't finished with the players yet. It’s about to get even bigger when it launches its third expansion, Songs of the Past, in 2027, and it may even be tough for The Witcher 4 to rival The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in terms of length. 9 Cyberpunk 2077 Cyberpunk 2077 was always going to boast a sprawling and dense open world when The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was the game that CD Projekt Red had to follow. There’s an entire world to learn about beyond it, but Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City alone is rife with content like gigs and side jobs that can absorb players before they decide to head out into its Outskirts and the Badlands. Add in the content from the Phantom Liberty expansion and associated updates, and it's easy to get stuck in Night City for much longer than you'd expect. 8 Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was, in many ways, the nail in the coffin for its breed of Assassin’s Creed games. It continued its predecessors’ goal of being longer and more bloated, and it was the straw that broke the camel’s back, as no Assassin’s Creed game since has been nearly as long. Assassin’s Creed Mirage scales things back down to match the earlier games, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows, while certainly no slouch when it comes to length, is comparable to the more manageable size of Assassin’s Creed Origins. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla isn’t the first giant-sized open-world Assassin’s Creed game to tackle the action-RPG genre instead of action-adventure—that’d be Assassin’s Creed Origins—but it and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey upped the scale. There's certainly enough content to keep players busy in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, as well, even if it doesn't take players the 20 years that it took Odysseus to fight in the Trojan War and return home to Ithaca. 7 Red Dead Redemption 2 Red Dead Redemption 2’s 100% completion averages at about 190 hours, whereas Red Dead Redemption’s 100% completion averages at about 45 hours. This is an obvious testament to how much bigger Red Dead Redemption 2 is than its predecessor, and the journey to completion isn't easy. With brutal time sinks and tedious RNG-based gambler challenges, 100%ing Red Dead Redemption 2 might not always feel worth it. Still, there's obviously plenty of excellent material in the game to break up the more monotonous parts. 6 Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Like what The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is to Breath of the Wild, or what Red Dead Redemption 2 is to Red Dead Redemption, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 greatly expands on Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Delivering a stunningly realized medieval sim, basically, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s open world is considered missable by many fans, while the main story is somewhat railroaded. That doesn’t mean it’s fleeting or minor, however. There is a reason why Kingdom Come: Deliverance and its sequel have earned such rapturous praise, and it’ll be fascinating to see how long it’ll take to 100% complete Warhorse’s upcoming open-world Middle-earth RPG, whenever that comes out. 5 Fallout 4 Fallout 4 may not be the installment that takes the longest to 100% complete out of Bethesda’s open-world Fallout games, but the one that does, Fallout 76, arguably doesn’t count, as it’s a live-service game that is treated to additional content over time. Similar to many open-world games’ 100% completion requirements, Fallout 4 tasks players with finishing multiple playthroughs in order to do everything. 100% completion of Fallout 4 can take upwards of 200 hours easily, assuming players aren’t still busy building settlements. The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind surpassing Skyrim as the Elder Scrolls game that takes the longest to 100% complete is no small feat. Skyrim may be the first game that comes to mind for many modern Elder Scrolls fans, but 100% completing Morrowind will surely be the greater challenge when it comes to how long it’ll take. Because The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion and The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim are shorter than Morrowind (although the difference with Skyrim is minimal), it's possible that The Elder Scrolls 6 will be more comparable in length to Oblivion or Skyrim than Morrowind. If so, Morrowind's crown might not be snatched for another decade or longer. 3 The Legend of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom does the unthinkable and eclipses Breath of the Wild in nearly every way, which can be intimidating if you found The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s sweeping open world to be daunting. Conversely, if you absolutely adored it for its open world and wanted more, Tears of the Kingdom will be a godsend. Plus, within Tears of the Kingdom’s open world, players have a lot more creative options for how they can solve environmental puzzles or traverse. It’s unknown if the next zelda game will cut back on the untethered freedom of exploration and wonder or be even greater in length when it comes to 100% completion, but the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake that’s still scheduled to be released this year should be a relief for players who aren’t quite ready for another commitment of that size. 2 Crimson Desert Crimson Desert may be the perfect open-world game for players who truly want to be overwhelmed by how much there is to do. With over 250 hours on average documented for how long it takes to 100% complete Crimson Desert, the open-world action-adventure game can obviously be overwhelming. The sheer enormity of Crimson Desert’s ambitious scope and scale was teased in its pre-release marketing, where it appeared as if it was a grab-bag of every conceivable video game mechanic and feature. It’s this sort of sandbox that will have players revisiting it after a spell in order to dabble more in its seemingly infinite content, and anyone who’s already completed it 100% in the relatively short period that it’s been out should commend themselves for masterful work. 1 Elden Ring Elden Ring’s open world is initially unassuming and only truly reveals just how massive it is as players explore. How long it takes to 100% Elden Ring will be particularly disorienting for FromSoftware Soulslike fans who vastly prefer the traditional, more linear Soulslike formula that Dark Souls and Bloodborne boast. 100% completion can still take a long while in those games, too, what with all the DLCs that they’ve accumulated. FromSoft fans are used to banging their heads against the wall or doing some research to learn how to reach a specific ending or progress an obtuse questline, but Elden Ring unquestionably makes all of FromSoft’s previous Soulslike games seem like flashes in a pan by any metric of comparison. Systems Released February 25, 2022 ESRB M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence Developer(s) From Software Publisher(s) Bandai Namco Entertainment, From Software Engine Proprietary