How Long Is The Last Of Us Part 1?

The Last of Us Part 1, a remake of the beloved 2013 Naughty Dog game, launched on PS5 on Friday September 2, 2022 with a PC port on the way. With HBO's live-action series adaptation arriving in 2023, players old and new will surely be picking up the PlayStation 5 title over the months to come. But how long does it take to beat both the main game and its prequel DLC, Left Behind? Here's our answer to the question "how long is The Last of Us?".

• Replaying the first game before God of War Ragnarok comes out? Check how long it takes to beat God of War (2018).

How Long Is The Last of Us?

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How long it takes to beat The Last of Us comes down to two things: collectables and difficulty. While treating you to one of the finest cinematic storytelling experiences in gaming, there are also a ton of collectables players will want to bolster gameplay and earn vital PlayStation trophies for completionists. Firefly pendants, comic books, weapons parts and workbenches for upgrades, optional conversations with NPCs, artifacts, skill-buffing training manuals, unlockable shiv doors, safes, and more - all are non-compulsory collectables that will add more time to your playthrough.

If playing on the Normal (Moderate) difficulty setting, the answer to the question, "how long is The Last of Us" is that it will take you at least 15 hours if you are only focusing on the story with minimal additional time spent on collectables. If you're looking to gather some collectables to enhance gameplay without earning 100% completion, your playtime might extend to around 17-18 hours. Completionists, on the other hand, going after all of the collectables to earn the Platinum Trophy will be looking at around 22 to 23 hours to beat the game. 

Left Behind should only take 2 hours at the quickest to complete. There are optional trophies to earn as well though - possibly taking players up to 3-4 hours in total if players ever need to reload a save to retry the opportunity to earn a missable trophy.

• Find out how to earn all of the trophies in our full The Last Us Part 1 trophy list.

How Long Is The Last of Us? - Difficulty Settings

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On The Last of Us' higher difficulty settings; Hard, Survivor, and Grounded; you may also need more time to make up for the more difficult enemies and lesser resources for you to find, padding the length of your playthrough.

Overall, The Last of Us Part 1 altogether (main game plus Left Behind) could take 17-27 hours on normal difficulty settings. Meanwhile, you might need an extra few hours on higher difficulty settings, being as low as 20 hours with 30 hours max for completionists. 

That's everything on answering "how long is The Last of Us?". Before you start playing, be sure to check out both what performance options and accessibility options come with the game. To help you get the Platinum Trophy, we've got full guides on where to get all of the collectables for that area, like the Quarantine Zone and the Outskirts. 

For more The Last of Us guides, be sure to find them right here at GGRecon.