Fans can sink countless hours into learning the Dark Souls maps and stories, with many exploring the wide variety of different build options they can choose from. In February 2022, FromSoftware released Elden Ring, which is something of a spiritual successor to Dark Souls. The open-world RPG has received universal acclaim, and the game’s build variety and huge map almost guarantees that it will be played for years to come. While Elden Ring might be the talk of the town, not everyone has access to the game, so some people might find themselves revisiting or playing for the first time FromSoftware’s Dark Souls trilogy. How long are these games?

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Updated March 14, 2022 by Mark Sammut: Elden Ring is out, and it is awesome. While building nicely on the Dark Souls formula, the 2022 game’s open-world setting gives it a unique flow that sets it apart from FromSoftware’s previous works. Consequently, Elden Ring does not replace Dark Souls in any shape or form. That trilogy is still fantastic, and these titles are destined to be replayed and discovered for a long time to come. This article’s information has been updated to match the current data on Howlongtobeat.com, and Scholar of the First Sin has also been added as a separate entry.

Dark Souls

Dark Souls was a follow-up to the cult-classic Demon’s Souls, and its wider availability helped it bring the genre to a larger audience. The first Dark Souls largely established the foundation that the following two games would go on to build from with an interlinked world, PvP invasions, and a world that managed to find beauty in desolation and despair. The game’s 42 hours sees players exploring the map and defeating the required bosses. However, the estimate does not account for how easily players learn the game’s combat mechanics, as well as how many of Dark Souls’ shortcuts and secrets players discover.

The completionist time sees players killing all the game’s bosses, unlocking all of its achievements, and completing all the game’s DLC. The optional Painted World area also adds an entirely new aspect to the lore of Dark Souls as well as numerous new challenges that will push players even further than the compulsory campaign. The Artorias of the Abyss DLC introduces multiple new locations and bosses, some of which (Manus and Knight Artorias) rank among the hardest fights in the franchise’s history. Thankfully, Dark Souls was remastered, so players who want to see where it began can check it out with some great new visuals on modern platforms.

Dark Souls 2

Dark Souls 2 is a slight departure for the trilogy, as it is the only entry not helmed by series creator Hidetaka Miyazaki. Instead, Dark Souls 2 is directed by Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura, who brought some new ideas to the series. These included a world map that focused on a wheel and spoke design with a central hub that reacts to the player’s actions. Dark Souls 2 also punished players by decreasing their maximum health each time they die. The game received a mixed reception from some fans of the series, but is also beloved amongst many others for being one of the hardest Soulsborne games released.

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Dark Souls 2’s main story completion is only slightly longer than its predecessor’s on average, but players who want to see everything it has to offer will have to spend a bit more time with the title. This also includes Dark Souls 2’s three DLC packs – Crown of the Ivory King, Crown of the Old Iron King, and Crown of the Sunken King – which each contribute around 4-10 hours of content to the game. Completing Dark Souls and its sequel brings the Main Story playtime up to 86 hours, while players looking to fully complete both titles will have to play for more than 200 hours.

Dark Souls 2: Scholar Of The First Sin

Unlike Dark Souls Remastered, Scholar of the First Sin is not simply a straight port of the 2014 game. This version significantly changes the Dark Souls 2 experience, be it through alterations to enemy placements, the introduction of new summons and invaders, small tweaks to fundamental mechanics, or a new boss in the form of the titular Scholar. Ultimately, this is not an entirely different experience from the original incarnation, but Scholar of the First Sin is unique enough to justify a playthrough if someone really loves DS2.

Scholar of the First Sin’s Main Story has an average completion time lower than vanilla game, but this discrepancy could be due to the fact that there were returning players who had an edge since they had already beaten the 2014 release. Scholar of the First Sin is generally considered to be harder than the original version, and it also comes packed with all the expansions.

Dark Souls 3

Dark Souls 3 features the shortest average playtime out of all the games in the series. However, some players spend much more time in this entry thanks to its active multiplayer community. Dark Souls 3 saw Hidetaka Miyazaki returning to the franchise, and it was extremely popular amongst the series’ fans when it was released. The sequel expanded the universe of Dark Souls even further, with some of the most memorable bosses in the entire series. Dark Souls 3 also introduced many new weapons to the franchise, some of which offered entirely new ways to approach encounters and boss fights. The game also sped up the combat, which was a wise change following the positive reception of FromSoftware’s other title Bloodborne.

Dark Souls 3’s shorter runtime helps encourage players to play through it multiple times to experiment with different builds, and to discover all of its numerous secrets without the assistance of guides. This means that one’s experience with Dark Souls 3 may very well run much longer than its averages of 32 hours for the main story and 96 hours for a completionist run.

The Dark Souls games have become extremely popular and influential across the gaming industry, and they are well worth a playthrough because of that. For fans who do enjoy the games, FromSoftware’s other titles like Sekiro, Bloodborne, and Demon’s Souls should be experienced as well, and this goes double for the recently released Elden Ring. The latter implements the Dark Souls formula in an open-world setting, delivering FromSoftware’s most expansive project to date.

For fans seeking to complete all three Dark Souls games, this brings the playtime to roughly 120 hours and a completionist run to 320 hours.

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