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# Games have gone from short to long to short again, says math
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/once-too-damn-long-games-are-now-merely-long/
- Published: 2014-06-05T16:41:20.000Z
- Updated: 2015-11-17T16:50:32.000Z
- Description: Shout out to all the short games out there.
- Author: Jason Johnson
- Tags: News, big data, GTA V, Minecraft, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-26 09:39

As Jamin once inspiredly argued, [games are too damn long](http://killscreendaily.com/articles/essays/games-are-too-damn-long/?ref=killscreen.com). And as a busy adult lacking the free time I knew growing up, I’m inclined to agree.

But whether you think similarly, or not so much, the length of games is shrinking, according to [this great piece of data-centric research](http://anthonyorgan.com/2014/05/31/are-games-actually-shrinking-rather-than-growing/?ref=killscreen.com) by blogger Anthony Organ. His source seems solid, as Organ mined data from the HowLongToBeat database, a popular site that obviously documents how long it takes to beat games.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/previously/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/year-chart.png)

As you can see from the chart, game length crested in 1999, and then zigzagged through the aughts before taking a nosedive around 2007, which just so happens to coincide with the global financial crisis, which makes sense. Since then, game length cut in half, with the average completion time taking 6 hours opposed to the 12 of its heyday. This is still about 3.5 times as long as your average film.

Like I said, as someone with a deficit of time, this is pretty okay with me, especially since there’s still indefinitely long experiences like *Minecraft* and *GTA Online* where lengthy game lovers can screw around indefinitely.