Baldur's Gate 3 fans waited several decades to get the third installment of the Baldur's Gate franchise. With that amount of development time, it's only fitting that the 3rd game in the series features an epic, longer game with endless combinations and replayable mechanics. In a game that mimics the open-ended creativity of DnD, Baldur's Gate 3 features a complex system of classes, races, social elements, group dynamics, and epic dice-based battles. As a result, taking on the entire game is a fairly hefty challenge.
Figuring out just how much time of your life will be lost to this epic gem of a game isn't completely obvious upfront. So, whether you intend to put dozens, or even hundreds, of hours in the game or just want a casual playthrough, you've come to the right place to find out just how long it takes to beat Baldur's Gate 3. Using the always-reliable HowLongToBeat.com, here is the general amount of time you can expect to put into the game.
Highlights
- Baldur's Gate 3 offers an epic, long game with endless combinations and replayability, featuring complex systems of classes, races, social elements, group dynamics, and dice-based battles.
- Finishing the main quest line without any side missions takes around 32 hours, but adding side quests and additional content can extend the playthrough to over 55 hours.
- To 100% complete Baldur's Gate 3, it will take upwards of 100 hours of dedicated gameplay, making it a sprawling and time-consuming experience.
Updated by Peter Schuler on August 8th, 2023: Changed times to reflect how long it takes to beat the game with more current information.
How Long Is Baldur's Gate 3's Main Story?
For the hustlers, busy parents, and gamers with little time on their hands, the fastest, most casual playthrough takes around 32 hours to complete. However, this is the time of finishing the main quest line without taking on any side missions in the playthrough. As with lots of games, most players won't just stick to the main mission alone. Ignoring all additional content such as romance options, unraveling side stories, and interesting world-building means players miss out on a large portion of the game. Adding on side quests will also tack on roughly an additional 10 more hours, making it so the playthrough with side quests sits at over 55 hours to finish. In fact, most general play-styles will finish the game in around 52 hours total.
How Long Does It Take To 100% Baldur's Gate 3?
Since Baldur's Gate 3 is loosely tied to the table-top version of DnD, the game is a sprawling, epic tale with lots of time to be spent exploring, talking, researching, and killing enemies. All in all, to 100% Baldur's Gate 3 it will take upwards of 100 hours of dedicated gameplay, and could easily take longer. Similarly, when compared to enormous other games like Elden Ring and Persona 5, you may end up putting that much into Baldur's Gate 3, depending on your level of enjoyment.
How Long Does It Take To Speedrun Baldur's Gate 3?
For Baldur's Gate 3, there are two main types of categories for speedrunning the game: simply rolling credits on the game as fast as possible, and beating the game while completing all quests. Both of the two best scores are held by Palmer, who did their speed runs in the Early Access version of the game. Below, a table shows each record according to speedrun.com at the time of this publication. Check out the link for more in-depth info and more records too.
|
Category |
Time |
Runner |
Platform |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Any% |
5m 58s |
Palmer |
PC |
|
All Quests |
2h 24m 10s |
Palmer |
PC |