For all the Final Fantasy fans out there, hopefully this will be nostalgic.

I’ve graphed the typical playing times for the main series Final Fantasy games, excluding the MMORPGs. The x-axis shows how long it took for completionists to beat the game (100% of all possible accomplishments, including unlockables, trophies, post-game bosses, sidequests, etc.) The y-axis shows the typical time for those beating just the main story line without any deviations.

While the data source provides both averages and medians of the times submitted by members, it also uses an algorithm to determine its reported times. I don’t know what this algorithm is, but I have used these reported times for the graph.

There is a general trend that more recent games take longer with the exception of the sequels (X-2 and XIII-2). I’ve also color coded the points to show which games were more heavily focused on the main story, and which were aimed as sidequests. Clearly, FF X is the game requiring the most time; if you played it like I did, there were many hours dedicated to blitzball.

Data source: http://www.howlongtobeat.com/index.php