Results

What’s a ‘Short’ Game?

Maximum Short Game Length for All Respondents

The most popular response for the maximum length of a short game was 30 minutes, and about 76% of respondents chose that length or less. Only about 2% of respondents considered anything longer than 60 minutes to be a short game.

One piece of feedback from a number of respondents was that they might have chosen a 45 minute option for a short game, if one had been available (this was not an issue for medium or long games).

Short Game Max Length by Age Group

Within the age groups that had enough respondents to examine them, there isn’t a lot of difference in perceptions of short game length. There is a minor shift up in the 60 and 90 minute categories for older players, with a corresponding downward shift in the 15 minute category.

Short Game Max Length by Gaming Frequency

There’s also broad agreement about what constitutes a short game for players across all frequencies of play, with some subtle shifts towards longer games for high frequency players.

Short Game Max Length by Experience

Things are more interesting when looking at the perception of short games by gaming experience. As players gain experience, they tend towards longer length categories — there’s a steady drop in the 15 minute and 30 minute categories, with corresponding gains in the 60 and 90 minute categories.

What’s a ‘Medium’ Game?

Maximum Medium Game Length for All Respondents

The most popular response for the maximum length of a medium game was 90 minutes, though 60 minutes was a close second. It bears pointing out that about 71% of respondents chose 90 minutes or less as the maximum for a medium length game, and only around 4% considered anything over 120 minutes as medium.

Medium Game Max Length by Age Group

Medium Game Max Length by Gaming Frequency

Medium Game Max Length by Experience

For medium games, the responses follow a pattern similar to short games. Player age creates a slight shift towards longer games, but gaming experience has a more dramatic effect on perception. There’s also an interesting shift back towards more middle-of-the-road values in the 11–20 year range. That may be due to the smaller sample size within that group.

What’s a ‘Long’ Game?

Maximum Long Game Length for All Respondents

The most popular response for the maximum length of a long game was 180 minutes, and about 71% of respondents chose that length or lower. About 10% of respondents considered long games to be greater than 240 minutes. By inference, this means that 90% of respondents view 240+ minutes as Extremely Long.

Long Game Max Length by Age Group

Long Game Max Length by Gaming Frequency

Long Game Max Length by Experience

The patterns from short and medium games mostly seem to continue, though there’s some interesting consolidation in the 6–10 and 11–20 year ranges whereby the consideration of a 240+ minute game as still just being ‘Long’ drops, with 180 minutes making a rebound as the maximum.

Willing and Preferred Game Lengths

Because the willing-to-play and preferred game length data did not vary significantly based on any demographic factors, they are summarized below in a view that includes all respondent data.

Respondent Willingness to Play by Game Length

Respondent Preferred Game Length

From the responses received, most players are willing to play short, medium, and long games, while extremely long games are significantly less likely to be played. Additionally, regardless of their own preferences, players tend to be most amenable to medium length games.

There’s another interesting way to look at this: whatever a respondent calls the length category they prefer, they have also indicated what they think the maximum length of that category is. Thus, it is possible to derive the maximum length of each respondent’s preferred game, regardless of the word they use to describe it.

Respondent Max Time of Preferred Game Length Category

Through this lens, we can get a clearer view of what most people would prefer a game’s maximum length to be. A narrow majority are seen to prefer 90 minutes or less, and less than 24% would put their preference over 120 minutes at the maximum.