The headline number

Mixtape is approximately 3 hours on a focused first playthrough — confirmed in-game by Maka91's 100% guide narration and consistent with IGN's review session length. This is for one ending, no missable hunting, no Chapter Select cleanup.

For perspective: that's shorter than What Remains of Edith Finch (~2 hours, the shortest Annapurna), longer than Sayonara Wild Hearts (~1.5 hours), and meaningfully shorter than Outer Wilds (~25-30 hours). It's a single sitting if you want it to be, two evenings if you don't.

The completion timing breakdown

Here is what each "completion goal" costs in real-world hours:

Just the credits (one ending, no hunting) — 3 hours. This is "watch a movie" length and is the way most reviewers played it.

26/26 achievements + one ending — 4-5 hours. The achievements that add the most time are the "missable" ones that require specific button timing (French Connection, Smooth Shopper, Instructions Not Required, Well Take a Look at That). Many can be mopped up via Chapter Select, which the game allows.

All 4 endings — 5-6 hours. Each ending requires a different decision-point spread across the 30 chapters. Chapter Select makes the second through fourth endings much faster than the first (~45 min each).

Full 100% (all achievements + all endings + all 28 songs heard) — 6-7 hours. This is the streamer / completionist target. The most consistently-cited "annoying" achievement is Well Take a Look at That (Ch 23, The Run) — zero missed jumps or slides.

What each path skips

If you only have 3 hours and want the most compressed Mixtape experience: don't try for any missables. Just play through and accept whatever ending the game gives you based on default choices. The game's default routing tends toward the True Ending if you engage with all three friends roughly equally.

If you have 5 hours: aim for True Ending + 80% achievements. Skip the timing-strict ones (Instructions Not Required, Well Take a Look at That) and the perfect-input ones (Smooth Shopper, And It's Out of Here). You'll still get the emotional arc and most of the trophies.

If you have 7 hours: 100%. Use chapter select aggressively. Watch the Maka91 100% YouTube guide (linked from our Achievements page) for the timing-strict ones — there's no shame in pre-watching them, the achievements aren't really the point of Mixtape.

A note on first-run pacing

Mixtape rewards a slow first run. The 3-hour estimate assumes you're moving at a normal pace through dialogue and not exploring every corner of every bedroom. If you take the time to talk to every character before triggering yellow circles, your first run will be closer to 4 hours — and you'll get the Front to Back achievement on the way.

The game is structured so that rushing it actively makes it worse. The chapters that feel like minigames (Shopping Cart Bomb, Skipping Stones, Slingshot) are 1-2 minute scenes; the chapters that feel like memory exploration (Rockford's House, Cassandra's House, Slater's House) are 8-12 minutes if played thoroughly. The pacing is intentional.