How long is Metroid Dread?

If you're wondering how much of your weekend you need to clear to beat Metroid Dread, you might want to cancel all of your plans. 2D Metroid games are notoriously quite compact, but the difficulty curve can mean that the hours locked in doesn't tell the full story of just how long you'll physically have to put into the game in order to see the credits. That makes the question of 'How long is Metroid Dread?' pretty complicated.

You can complete the game without collecting all the optional items and upgrades like E-Tanks, but if you're a completionist there's a 100% completion rate to tick off.

How long is Metroid Dread?

Complete runs of the game clock in around 10-13 hours, with that number jumping up to 13-15 hours for those looking for 100% completion.

However, it's very important to take into consideration that these figures aren't accurate for actual playtime counts. How Metroid Dread works is that it only counts certain things as actual playtime.

Firstly, time spent on the pause screen - including just looking at the map, which you'll do a lot - doesn't count towards the completion time that the game will list on the menu. You'll need to regularly check the map for where to go next, figure out where to backtrack to, solve puzzles, and remind yourself where teleporters and other travel options are located, among other things after all.

Secondly, your time taken to beat Metroid Dread doesn't count any repeated attempts to defeat a boss, or anything that appears before a Game Over screen. That means only your successful progress through the game is counted towards in the in-game total playtime.

With our own experience and other reviewers saying that some bosses took multiple hours to complete, you're looking at closer to 25 hours of real-world time that you'll need to put into Metroid Dread in order to hit that 100% completion rate.

Good luck fellow planet ZDR explorers!

Sam Loveridge is the Brand Director and former Global Editor-in-Chief of GamesRadar. She joined the team in August 2017. Sam came to GamesRadar after working at TrustedReviews, Digital Spy, and Fandom, following the completion of an MA in Journalism. In her time, she's also had appearances on The Guardian, BBC, and more. Her experience has seen her cover console and PC games, along with gaming hardware, for a decade, and for GamesRadar, she's in charge of the site's overall direction, managing the team, and making sure it's the best it can be. Her gaming passions lie with weird simulation games, big open-world RPGs, and beautifully crafted indies. She plays across all platforms, and specializes in titles like Pokemon, Assassin's Creed, The Sims, and more. Basically, she loves all games that aren't sports or fighting titles! In her spare time, Sam likes to live like Stardew Valley by cooking and baking, growing vegetables, and enjoying life in the countryside.