How long is Red Dead Redemption?

A shootout in Red Dead Redemption — (Image credit: Rockstar Games)

Knowing how long it takes to beat Red Dead Redemption means you can plan for your outlaw journey across the Old West, and this is by no means a brief American adventure. It's likely that the story alone will run you to at least 20 hours, but that can quickly stack up a lot more as you explore the expansive world of Red Dead Redemption and get distracted by the many side activities you can stumble upon. Whether you're hunting for treasure, helping out strangers, or gambling away your hard-earned cash in the nearest bar, there's always something vying for your attention, so with that in mind here are the details on how long is Red Dead Redemption 1.

Red Dead Redemption length

As mentioned, the number of hours it takes to complete the original Red Dead Redemption depends on how you spend your time playing, so here are some rough time indicators:

Story-focused: 20-25 hours
Story + side activities: 25-35 hours
Slow and thorough/100% completionist: 35+ hours

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The Red Dead Redemption story takes place over 57 missions, which sounds like a lot, but it’s possible to get through the entire story in around 20 hours, perhaps a little less, if it’s your sole focus. However, it’s inevitable that you’ll spend at least a few hours galloping around, exploring New Austin and completing various Red Dead Redemption Stranger missions across the land, so you’ll be spending closer to 30 hours if you enjoy roaming around and taking on side missions.

Finally, if you’re up for experiencing every aspect of Red Dead Redemption 1, or just want to take your time with seeing John Marston’s story through to the end, you’ll probably be spending over 35 hours in the game. For 100% completionists, your final Red Dead Redemption completion time is more than likely going to be in the 40–50-hour range, as there’s a lot for John Marston to see and do.

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Will Sawyer is a Guides Editor at GamesRadar+ with over five years of experience in writing online guides, news, and features, and has a BA (Hons) in Journalism. Starting as a freelancer, Will contributed to startmenu and Game Rant before joining the GamesRadar+ team in August 2021. Since then, he has written hundreds of guides about a huge range of games, with shooters and action games being his areas of expertise. Outside of writing about games, Will hops between multiplayer shooters with friends, such as Darktide and Helldivers 2, and delves into whatever has been on his backlog for far too long. He also tries to get through his never-ending Warhammer pile of shame of grey Tyranids, Aeldari, and Chaos Space Marines.