Resident Evil Requiem (also known as Resident Evil 9) launches on February 27, 2026, for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2. One of the biggest pre-release questions has been how long the game actually is — and the answer depends heavily on how you play.
Quick answer: A standard first playthrough of Resident Evil Requiem takes roughly 10 to 16 hours, with most players landing around the 12-hour mark. Completionist runs across multiple playthroughs can reach 30 to 40 hours.
Main Story Length for Resident Evil Requiem
Producer Masato Kumazawa initially compared Requiem's scope to the Resident Evil 4 remake, which averages about 16 hours for a main story playthrough. The game's director later tempered that comparison, noting that playtime estimates are inherently tricky because individual playstyle, difficulty setting, and exploration habits create wide variance.
Well-known Resident Evil insider Dusk Golem offered a more specific framing: Requiem is longer than Resident Evil Village but a bit shorter than RE4. Since Village clocks in at roughly 10 hours for a first run and RE4 sits around 16, that puts Requiem's sweet spot at approximately 12 to 14 hours for a typical first playthrough on Standard difficulty.
Early completion screenshots from players who obtained the game ahead of launch back this up. One Standard-difficulty end screen showed a clear time of around 12 hours. Other reported times range from a low of about 9 hours to a high above 13, with 11 hours appearing as a rough average among those who played through at a brisk pace.
The In-Game Timer Doesn't Track Everything
An important detail that often gets lost in these discussions: Resident Evil's in-game timer does not count cutscenes, pause time, or time spent in inventory menus. Requiem reportedly contains close to two hours of cutscenes alone. So if your end screen says 12 hours, your actual real-world time with the game is probably closer to 14 or 15 hours — and potentially more if you die frequently or spend time managing your loadout.
Steam playtime and console activity logs will always read higher than the in-game clear time for this reason. If you're the type of player who reads every file, checks every corner, and plays on a harder difficulty, you can reasonably expect your first run to push toward 18 to 20 hours of real elapsed time.
Grace and Leon Split the Campaign
Requiem divides its campaign between two playable characters: Grace, a new protagonist, and returning series veteran Leon S. Kennedy. Early reports suggest each character's portion runs roughly 9 to 10 hours on a golden-path playthrough, though the split isn't necessarily even depending on how much optional content you pursue on each side.
The two characters play very differently. Grace's sections lean heavily into classic survival horror — limited resources, stealth, puzzles, and tension over action. She has access to firearms but isn't built for direct combat the way Leon is. Leon's half is more action-oriented, closer in feel to RE4 with lighter puzzle density. Both characters can be played in either first-person or third-person perspective, which is a first for the series.
One interesting wrinkle: the game world changes based on what the other character has already done in a given area, which adds a layer of interconnectedness between the two halves.
Difficulty Settings and Replay Value
Difficulty has an outsized impact on playtime in Resident Evil games, and Requiem is no exception. On easier settings, you can blast through encounters quickly and keep moving. Harder difficulties force more careful resource management, slower exploration, and tougher enemy encounters — all of which add hours.
For context, many players report their first RE4 Remake run on Hardcore taking 20 to 28 hours compared to 12 to 16 on Standard. Expect a similar spread with Requiem.
The game includes New Game Plus, allowing you to carry over unlocks into subsequent runs. There's also a difficulty mode called Insanity that reportedly functions as a randomizer, remixing elements of the game to keep repeat playthroughs fresh. Whether this is a full randomizer or something closer to RE7's Madhouse mode (which only shuffled item placements in the early hours) remains to be seen once the game is widely available.
The speedrun trophy for Requiem requires completing the game in under 4 hours. For comparison, RE Village's speedrun trophy was set at 3 hours and RE3 Remake's was 90 minutes. That 4-hour threshold suggests Requiem has meaningfully more content to get through even on an optimized run.
Completionist Playtime: 30 to 40 Hours
The 30-to-40-hour figure that has circulated refers to full completion across multiple playthroughs — not a single run. Resident Evil games have always required several passes to unlock everything: different difficulty clears, speed run trophies, weapon-restricted challenges, and collectible hunting all stack up.
Requiem's optional content within a single playthrough includes hidden weapons, inventory upgrades, and files scattered throughout the environment. There are no traditional side quests, but exploration is rewarded with additional gear and lore. One player who claimed to have found all optional content finished in about 11 hours of in-game time.
How Requiem Compares to Other Resident Evil Games
| Game | Main Story | Completionist |
|---|---|---|
| Resident Evil (Remake) | 11½ hours | 23½ hours |
| Resident Evil 2 (Remake) | 9 hours | 36½ hours |
| Resident Evil 3 (Remake) | 6 hours | 20½ hours |
| Resident Evil 4 (Remake) | 16 hours | 64½ hours |
| Resident Evil 7: Biohazard | 9½ hours | 28½ hours |
| Resident Evil Village | 10 hours | 38½ hours |
| Resident Evil Requiem (est.) | 10–16 hours | 30–40 hours |
Requiem slots in comfortably as one of the longer entries in the modern series, trailing only RE4 Remake and the notoriously lengthy RE6. It's a meaningful step up from Village and RE7, both of which could be finished in under 10 hours by players moving at a steady clip.
Factors That Will Push Your Playtime Higher
Playing on Hardcore or higher difficulty will add several hours as enemy encounters become more punishing and resources scarcer. Thorough exploration — reading every document, checking every room, backtracking for missed items — easily adds 3 to 5 hours over a straight story run. Grace's stealth-focused sections in particular reward patience; rushing through them is possible but means missing optional pickups and environmental storytelling.
If you're the kind of player who typically exceeds posted completion times, budgeting 15 to 20 hours for a first playthrough is reasonable. Players who tend to finish games faster than average should expect something in the 10-to-12-hour range.
Resident Evil Requiem isn't trying to be a 40-hour RPG. It's a tightly scoped survival horror game designed to be replayed, with each run peeling back new layers through harder difficulties, character-specific mechanics, and the Insanity randomizer mode. For a first blind playthrough, most players will land somewhere around 12 to 14 hours of in-game time — a solid middle ground for the franchise.