Crimson Desert time to beat

Kliff in a sword fight with masked warrior Reed Devil in a golden field — (Image credit: Pearl Abyss)

How long is Crimson Desert, and what time to beat can players expect from a game like this? Crimson Desert has been sold as a big fantasy RPG along the lines of The Witcher 3 or Breath of the Wild, but whether or not it has the same expansive amount of content and playtime might have been more in question, if not for some key information revealed by the developer and publisher, Pearl Abyss, as we'll explain below. Here's how much content you can expect from Crimson Desert, and all the available information based on playtime ahead of its release.

How long to beat Crimson Desert

Crimson Desert: Macduff looking out into the distance during the new game, Crimson Desert. — (Image credit: Pearl Abyss)

Crimson Desert will be between 50 and 80 hours long in total, according to an investor relations meeting in September 2024. The original report of that IR meeting is no longer available online, but English-translated copies exist online (thanks, Resetera).

That report said that Crimson Desert should be between 50 and 80 hours "of gameplay", a phrasing suggestive of the idea that this would account for the entire game, and not just the critical path (though this is a translation from a now-removed report and therefore is arguably up for question).

It's also stated that Crimson Desert will gain "multiplayer online content for the game, similar to GTA's multiplayer mode" post-launch, to expand the game's length and ensure "long-term earnings". However, very little about multiplayer has been said recently, so it's harder to verify if that's still currently the case.

Kliff loiters on a street corner in Crimson Desert as guards in green march past, led by a bulky mechanical suit of armor that's curiously sci-fi-inspired against the medieval fantasy style elsewhere — (Image credit: Pearl Abyss)

All this being said, we should clarify that this comes from a meeting in September 2024, nearly two years ago, and much can be changed across the course of a game's development in that time. Crimson Desert may emerge longer, shorter, or in a different form than was planned at the time, since game development is a highly malleable and adaptive creative process.

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Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.

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