Here's exactly how long it takes to beat Guardians of the Galaxy

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy has finally landed on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. If you’re planning on journeying to the Andromeda Galaxy with the Guardians anytime soon, you may be wondering just how long this epic adventure will take to beat. Below, we outline all you need to know to budget your play sessions correctly.

How many chapters are in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy?

Guardians of the Galaxy features a prologue and 16 individual chapters spread across the entirety of the game. Here’s the full list of chapter titles for those who don’t mind reading some very light spoilers.

• Prologue
• Chapter 1: A Risky Gamble
• Chapter 2: Busted
• Chapter 3: The Cost of Freedom
• Chapter 4: The Monster Queen
• Chapter 5: Due or Die
• Chapter 6: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
• Chapter 7: Canine Confusion
• Chapter 8: The Matriarch
• Chapter 9: Desperate Times
• Chapter 10: Test of Faith
• Chapter 11: Mind Over Matter
• Chapter 12: Knowhere To Run
• Chapter 13: Against All Odds
• Chapter 14: Into The Fire
• Chapter 15: Broken Promises
• Chapter 16: Magus

When it comes to budgeting your hour count in your playthrough, these chapters tend to get denser the further you delve into the plot. The first five chapters, for example, can generally be finished after just a few hours of play. As the combat encounters steadily crank up their difficulty, though, expect the time to pile up the later you get.

How long does it take to beat Guardians of the Galaxy?

Based on our full Inverse playthrough of the game that took around 17 hours, we estimate that Guardians of the Galaxy could take players anywhere from 15-20 hours to complete depending on how much they’d like to focus on gathering collectibles. We found about half of the collectibles as we went, but completionists may want to spend more time in each area if they prefer not to use a guide.

While Guardians of the Galaxy drags you along its main narrative path the entire way, extra time can build up if you decide, for example, to find the wide variety of cosmetics outfits for every character hidden in specific spawn locations. Some crafting part locations might require tough platforming or light puzzle-solving to accomplish as well.

If you’re just playing through Guardians for the first time, it should be noted that you’ll have additional chances to gather collectibles in the New Game+ mode that unlocks after you beat the game. So, while the game itself doesn’t really telegraph it, it helps to know that you don’t really have to spend too much time focused on the smaller details if you’re primarily interested in knowing where the story goes next. After all, the narrative might just be the single best part of playing through Guardians of the Galaxy in the first place.

In short, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is a fairly light and breezy narrative game that shouldn’t be too much of a time sink.