The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom play time and completion time are both rather lengthy, as you might expect from a Zelda game. While the main story beats are fairly straightforward, there’s plenty to do outside of it, including working for the Lucky Clover Gazette, taking on side adventures and quests, and discovering all of the Tears of the Kingdom shrines.

According to HowLongToBeat.com, a straightforward playthrough of Tears of the Kingdom takes around 59 hours. Compare that to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which takes approximately 50 hours to finish in a similar mode, and you can see that Tears of the Kingdom is already considerably longer. Note that these times are estimates, and that getting 100% completion requires extensive work, so you could very well spend even more time than estimated to discover everything, as with Breath of the Wild.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom speedrun

The current speedrun record for Tears of the Kingdom is 44 minutes and 32 seconds. While speedrunning isn’t for everyone, it’s helpful to see just how quickly you can get through the game if you’re pressed for time. Rushing through the game without taking in the story beats and world building could lead to major plot spoilers, so we recommend that you check out our Tears of the Kingdom review before diving in.

How long is The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom?

Engaging in side adventures and quests can double the playtime to around 109 hours, which is around the same as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. However, a completionist run of Tears of the Kingdom, including finding and doing everything, is estimated to take about 224 hours – almost double the playtime of Breath of the Wild.

Tears of the Kingdom has an abundance of tasks and activities, so there’s always something new to do. You can work for the Lucky Clover Gazette to gather information on the citizens of Hateno, help the Hylian army fight monsters across the world, or catch fish and insects to complete your collection. Getting 100% completion on a single file will require a lot of work and time, but multiple playthroughs can help you discover even more about the kingdom of Hyrule.

Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma has played Tears of the Kingdom 20 times and says that venturing off the beaten path is what makes the game special and enhances the experience. We’re certainly of the opinion that exploring and discovering new things is one of the best things about the series, so we hope that the game gives you plenty of reasons to get lost in its world.