Compared to its predecessor, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is absolutely massive – and Breath of the Wild was not a short game. Tears of the Kingdom brings two new levels to Hyrule, one above and one below, as well as sweeping changes to the original map, not to mention the massively overhauled gameplay and navigation mechanics that force players to re-think everything they think they know.
There are two main ways to approach Tears of the Kingdom: as a completionist looking to find everything there is to find in Hyrule and players just looking to enjoy the game at whatever pace they feel is right. According to players across the internet and howlongtobeat.com – which aggregates user and reviewer-submitted times for a variety of playstyles – it can take anywhere from a few dozen hours to well over a hundred.
The Average Player Will Take Around 40 to 80 Hours
Howlongtobeat.com relies on user-submitted data to compile an average time that it takes to complete a variety of games. Because the sequel to Breath of the Wild is still so new, the site has a limited number of users polled on the length of Tears of the Kingdom, but its findings seem to be corroborated by others who have spent a lot of time with the game this past weekend.
The site lists the Main Story of Tears of the Kingdom as taking about 43-ish hours to beat, but that's for those who were mostly ignoring side content. Players who take on side content can instead expect to be in the game for around 70 hours.
However, according to three contributors to IGN who were asked how long it took them to beat the game, it could take even longer. Only one of the three had actually finished the game at about 60 hours, but the other two had clocked far more than that and were apparently barely at 50% and 35% completion. GameSpot argued that it could take around 65 to 75 hours for the average player to beat, while Nintendo Life reported that at the 80-hour mark, the main quest was over, but the collecting had only just begun.
It Takes A Lot Longer To 100% Tears of the Kingdom
Players who wanted to 100% complete Breath of the Wild found that it was a task much easier said than done thanks to a few things: the sheer number of Shrines that had to be finished (as well as DLC content) and the 900 Korok Seeds that had to be found to earn Hestu's Gift. To actually 100% Breath of the Wild was a monumental task that required dedication over months to reach – to say that such a task took longer than 100 hours on average is an understatement.
Tears of the Kingdom has an enormous world absolutely brimming with content, as well as the return of Shrines and Korok Seeds for players to hunt down. As a result, players who want to 100% Tears of the Kingdom should expect to spend hundreds of hours searching every nook and cranny for all of the game's most hidden secrets.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is available exclusively on the Nintendo Switch.