God of War Ragnarok: How Long Does It Take to Beat the Game?

In the early days, God of War games were linear adventures. Each of those early titles funneled gamers down glorified corridors filled with enemies, punctuated by the occasional (and easily missable) side path. However, those games were focused more on spilling as much monster blood as possible over exploration. The God of War reboot changed the franchise’s formula with a semi-open world, and God of War Ragnarok continues that trend with action that should keep gamers entertained for months. How long does it take to actually beat the game, though?

Long story (and game) short, it will take most players around 30 hours to beat God of War Ragnarok. At the very least, it will take you about that long to see much of what the game has to offer. It took our gaming editor about 32 hours to complete the story and many of the game’s side quests the first time around on “standard” difficulty.

Sites such as Forbes and Eurogamer took around the same amount of time (30 and 35 hours on default difficulty, respectively) to beat much of the game. But what if you’re more interested in just completing the campaign over exploring every piece of side content? Well, Forbes estimates that will only require a 20-hour investment, but you will miss out on quite a few memorable encounters and rewards. Furthermore, certain boss fights and puzzles may take you longer to overcome than others, so that number could shoot up a bit if you suddenly get stuck on one of the game’s mandatory challenges.

Like the God of War reboot before it, God of War Ragnarök has plenty of post-campaign content to keep players going after the credits roll. Gamers can pick up artifacts, read stone markers, and solve puzzle chests they missed. Forbes claimed that anyone who wants to see everything Ragnarök has to offer will spend around 40-45 hours in total, while Eurogamer placed their estimate between 50 and 60 hours. Either way, anyone who sticks around for the completionist lifestyle will receive a platinum trophy.

If you take those “time to beat” estimates and their many variables to heart, you’ll find that Ragnarök is just as long as 2018’s God of War (give or take a few hours). While this news might sound disappointing, 30-60 hours is more than decent, especially for an adventure as epic as God of War Ragnarök.

Moreover, most reviewer game lengths were calculated using the default game difficulty, so anyone who plays the game on lower difficulties will (probably) breeze past challenges much faster. Conversely, gamers who play on higher difficulty settings will spend more time with the title not only because enemies will soak up more damage but because all the deaths players will inevitably suffer will eventually add up. For what it’s worth, Ragnarok also feels much bigger than its predecessor, both in terms of the narrative scope of the game and its structure. If you want to spend dozens of hours in this game, you will have the chance to do so.

So while it probably won’t take you much longer to beat Ragnarok than it took you to beat 2018’s God of War, those who choose to hunt down every collectible, finish every sidequest, and play on the harder difficulty settings may find that Ragnarok at least feels like a slightly more substantial experience. In any case, those expecting more God of War won’t be disappointed.