The Assassin’s Creed franchise is thirteen years old and still going strong. The three latest entries made a drastic change from open world free roam to open-world RPG, the latest being Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. This RPG format definitely made Assassin’s Creed a much bigger feat than the much smaller games of the past.
There are quite a few spin-off entries in the Assassin’s Creed series but this list will only focus on the 13 main games. It will also include numerous expansions, remasters, and DLC updates. Game lengths are calculated by howlongtobeat, a website that gathers player data to achieve accurate estimates. Given that most players will be at least dipping into side content, “Main Story + Extra” has been used to arrive at the listed estimates.
Updated November 26th, 2020 by Hodey Johns: With the release of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, additional DLC for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and more player data, you will be wondering exactly how times have increased or decreased and where the latest entries are at now, minutes-wise. Fans have been able to calculate how much enjoyment the game has provided and, for those who haven’t played every entry, how many hours of entertainment are still in store.
13 Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry - 6 Hours
For a series that features resistance to tyranny, it is surprising that only one former slave gets his very own game. And protagonist Adéwalé almost didn’t even have that much.
Originally slated to be DLC for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, the game is, therefore, unsurprisingly short for a stand-alone release. You’ll surely feel the passion for freedom and hatred of tyranny burn hot, even if it is only for 6 hours (make it 7 for the completionists).
12 Assassin’s Creed - 20 Hours
It makes sense that the first game is also one of the shortest, taking an average of 20 hours to complete. The original Assassin’s Creed followed Altaïr, a member of the Assassin Order during the Crusades. It was a barebones entry compared to future installments, which added several side activities, for better or for worse.
Players followed the main story closely, only deviating to save citizens from guards or to climb viewpoints. It set a strong foundation for the series by establishing the fundamentals of crowd blending, pickpocketing, and, of course, assassinations. It also introduced the Animus, which a team of experts is still trying to understand.
11 Assassin’s Creed Revelations - 21 Hours
The fourth installment in the series is only slightly longer than the original game. It will take players, on average, about 21 hours to complete. Revelations follows master assassin Ezio Auditore as he tries to uncover the secrets of Altaïr’s vault.
In a surprising decision, Revelations had a smaller open world than previous games and less side content. It had nine main sequences like the previous game, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, but Constantinople had a stark lack of free roam activities. It feels like half of the game is spent chasing down a single, unique boss.
10 Assassin’s Creed Rogue - 21.5 hours
Covering events taking place between Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed III, Rogue seemed a bit less ambitious than either of these titles, with even total completionist runs clocking in at around 34 hours.
It wasn’t remarkably well-received, either, with the adventures of Shay Patrick Cormac drawing fairly average reviews from players and critics.
9 Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood - 25.5 Hours
As an interesting note, if you breeze through the main story then it will take about 15 hours to finish. Most people, though, will squabble in the side content – and there’s a lot when it comes to Brotherhood.
Players can collect Borgia flags, feathers, destroy Leonardo’s machines, do faction side missions, and even follow a flashback story. Not to mention, mentoring and training a group of Assassin recruits. This all compliments the main story where Ezio and his team try to recover Rome from the Borgia.
8 Assassin’s Creed II - 26.5 Hours
There’s only a hair’s breadth of difference between Assassin’s Creed II and Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood in terms of length. Assassin’s Creed II has the longest main story out of the Ezio trilogy while Brotherhood has one of the shortest. The second Assassin’s Creed also has four cities to visit instead of one bigger city. Surprisingly, Assassin’s Creed II severely lacks side content. It successfully expanded from the original game by creating a more traditional open world, but it didn’t add much of the optional fluff until Brotherhood.
7 Assassin’s Creed III - 31 Hours
Assassin’s Creed III finally gave us a break from Italy and Ezio with mixed reactions. Ratonhnhake/Conner began his Assassin journey during the American Revolution. Many fans did not like Conner as a character and complained about the slow start. There are fans, though, that vigorously defend Assassin’s Creed III as their favorite game in the series.
It takes about 31 hours to complete, the average length for an Assassin’s Creed game. There are 12 sequences in the game but players don’t even meet the main character until sequence 5. It’s well worth the wait, though, as Connor is one of the most powerful assassins in the entire franchise.
6 Assassin’s Creed Unity - 32.5 hours
Everyone knows about the infamous Assassin’s Creed Unity. The disastrous game hardly worked at launch and tainted the sales for Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. The technical issues overshadowed some of the good things about the entry. It’s the best looking Assassin’s Creed (besides the three newest entries, which have their own fair share of annoying problems) and it has one of the best parkour systems. Arno Dorian’s story will take just under 33 hours to complete.
5 Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate - 33 Hours
Let’s skip a few entries and look at Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. Taking place in the most modern time period yet for a mainline entry and set in the industrial revolution, it was the first to feature two playable main characters. Evie and Jacob Frye combat the templar-run industrialism in London. It takes around 33 hours to complete.
Along with the main story, you will spend most of that time running gangs out of London, a lofty bit of side content. To do this, you have to complete a series of missions such as taking criminals to the police and liberating children from cruel factories. After completing a certain amount of these missions, a successful gang war will allow you to take control of the map.
4 Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag - 40.5 hours
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was a big jump in game length. Black Flag followed the pirate, Edward Kenway, and featured a huge open world. The game lets players sail around the Caribbean and explore several optional islands and cities.
It takes 40 hours to beat, and it was the biggest environment in Assassin’s Creed yet. Black Flag was also one of the most critically acclaimed Assassin’s Creed games. It’s surprising then that the next games (Unity and Syndicate) went back to the more traditional formula.
3 Assassin’s Creed: Origins - 50 hours
This is the transformation of Assassin’s Creed - a major change in the traditional formula. Assassin’s Creed Origins marked the transition to an RPG with a massive world and an almost inexhaustible list of quests. It will take 50 hours to play and about 80 hours to finish everything (including those fantastic side quests). The game followed Bayek and showed fans how the order of the Assassins started. Origins also changed the established gameplay making it a clear revamp for the series. It also created a stark divide among Assassin’s Creed fans: the old schoolers and new schoolers.
2 Assassin’s Creed Valhalla - 66.5 Hours
Coming in at just a touch over 66 hours is Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, still a lengthy game, but a full 14 hours shorter on content than its predecessor. Though with both free DLC and Season Pass DLC on the horizon, there is still a very real chance of this installment taking the top spot.
At over 92 hours of total content between finishing world events, finding artifacts, collecting wealth, and upgrading your settlement, players will be experiencing absolutely no shortage of things to do anytime soon.
1 Assassin’s Creed Odyssey - 80.5 Hours
You can spend 80 hours finishing the main quest and the majority of the map is still unexplored. This doesn’t even factor in the time added for the mods, which have improved and added to the game. A completionist run of Odyssey will take about 131 hours, and that’s completely understandable. There are branching storylines, vast cities to explore, cultists to hunt down, and the most side quests in any Assassin’s Creed game. Odyssey takes place in ancient Greece and chronicles the story of a certain mercenary’s troubled family.
NEXT: 10 Lingering Questions We Have After The End Of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
