Summary

  • AC Mirage offers a refreshing break with a 19-hour completion time, the shortest in the series.
  • AC Freedom Cry is the shortest standalone game in the series at 6 hours, focused on resistance.
  • AC Valhalla provides the longest gameplay at 96.5 hours, including expansions, embracing the RPG genre.

The Assassin's Creed series is still going strong. While the series innovated and refreshed itself in the late 2010s to make the games longer with big open worlds and a focus on free-roaming, the series has now balanced out to feature a balance between these larger undertakings, and more scaled back condensed adventures.

Related

8 Things That Make No Sense In Assassin's Creed Mirage

Nope, these aren't a mirage! Some things in Basim's journey in Assassin's Creed Mirage don't make a shred of sense.

Posts

There are quite a few spin-off entries in the Assassin's Creed series but this list will only focus on the mainline games. This list also includes 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 entries encourage dipping into side content, "Main Story + Extra" has been used to arrive at the listed estimates.

Updated on March 19, 2025 by Tom Hopkins: Since some fans complained about how overstuffed the likes of Assassin's Creed Valhalla are, the expectation was that Shadows would be a somewhat smaller game. Now that the game is out, players can see for themselves.

15 Assassin's Creed Freedom Cry - 6 Hours

Assassin's Creed Freedom Cry

Adventure Action-Adventure Released November 17, 2013 ESRB M For Mature 17+ // Blood, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence Developer(s) Ubisoft, Ubisoft Quebec Publisher(s) Ubisoft Engine AnvilNext Platform(s) Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Stadia, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 How Long To Beat 4 hours PS Plus Availability Extra & Premium Powered by Expand Collapse

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 4: 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 six hours (make it seven for the completionists).

14 Assassin's Creed Mirage - 19 Hours

Assassin's Creed Mirage

Platform(s) Powered by Expand Collapse

When it was announced that Mirage would be a much shorter game than the post-Origins generation of Assassin's Creed games, fans expected something closer to the games that started the series. However, it was not expected that the game would be even shorter than the first game in the series.

As it stands at launch, Assassin's Creed Mirage will take around 19 hours to complete if you aren't rushing, making it the shortest game in the series with the exception of Freedom Cry. For fans hoping to dedicate weeks upon weeks, this might disappoint, but if you are looking for something more condensed, this is a refreshing break from tradition.

13 Assassin's Creed - 20 Hours

Assassin's Creed

Open-World Stealth Action Released November 14, 2007 ESRB M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Strong Language, Violence Developer(s) Ubisoft Montreal Publisher(s) Ubisoft Engine anvilnext, havok, scimitar Sequel(s) Assassin's Creed 2 Number of Players Single Player Platform(s) PC, PS3, Xbox 360 How Long To Beat 14.5 Hours How Long To Beat (Completionist Runs) 32 Hours Powered by Expand Collapse

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.

The game is structured to follow 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.

12 Assassin's Creed Revelations - 21 Hours

Assassin's Creed Revelations

Action Open-World Released November 15, 2011 ESRB M for Mature: Blood, Language, Mild Sexual Themes, Violence Developer(s) Ubisoft Montreal Publisher(s) Ubisoft Engine havok Multiplayer Online Multiplayer Platform(s) PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Switch, PC How Long To Beat 13 Hours Metascore 80 PS Plus Availability Extra & Premium Powered by Expand Collapse

The fourth installment in the series is only slightly longer than the original game. It will take, 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.

11 Assassin's Creed Rogue - 21.5 hours

Assassin's Creed Rogue

Action Open-World Released November 11, 2014 Developer(s) Ubisoft Platform(s) Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Stadia Powered by Expand Collapse

Covering events taking place between Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag and Assassin's Creed 3, 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.

10 Assassin's Creed Brotherhood - 25.5 Hours

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Action Adventure Released November 16, 2010 Developer(s) Ubisoft Platform(s) PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, macOS, Switch Powered by Expand Collapse

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.

Related

Every Costume In Assassin's Creed Mirage, Ranked

Have Basim look his best and most elusive self with the variety of costumes in AC Mirage.

Posts

You 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.

9 Assassin's Creed 2 - 26.5 Hours

Assassin's Creed 2

Action Adventure Released November 7, 2009 Developer(s) Ubisoft Platform(s) macOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One Powered by Expand Collapse

There's only a hair's breadth of difference between Assassin's Creed 2 and Assassin's Creed Brotherhood in terms of length. Assassin's Creed 2 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 2 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.

8 Assassin's Creed 3 - 31 Hours

Assassin's Creed 3 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 3 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 you 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 series.

7 Assassin's Creed Unity - 32.5 hours

Assassin's Creed Unity

Action Open-World Released November 11, 2014 Developer(s) Ubisoft Platform(s) PS4, Xbox One, PC, Stadia Powered by Expand Collapse

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 newer 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.

6 Assassin's Creed: Syndicate - 33 Hours

Assassin's Creed Syndicate

Action Adventure Released October 23, 2015 ESRB M for Mature: Blood, Drug Reference, Strong Language, Violence Developer(s) Ubisoft Publisher(s) Ubisoft Engine anvilnext Platform(s) PS4, Xbox One, PC, Stadia, Amazon Luna How Long To Beat 1 9Hours PS Plus Availability Extra & Premium How Long To Beat (Completionist Runs) 55 Hours OpenCritic Rating Strong Powered by Expand Collapse

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.