How Many Hours Does it Take to Finish Forza Horizon 5?

As an open world racing game, Forza Horizon 5 provides tons of races, challenges, collectibles, and exploring across its depiction of Mexico. But with so much to see and do, how many hours of gameplay should you expect to spend fully experiencing it?

For players focused solely on plowing through the main story chapters and seeing credits roll, Forza Horizon 5 takes approximately 20-25 hours. For completionists striving for 100% game completion, the total gameplay length can extend up to 80-100+ hours.

Let‘s analyze the estimated gameplay length across different playstyles:

Finishing Main Story Chapters

Forza Horizon 5‘s core story focuses on progressing through various race chapters as part of the Horizon Adventure campaign. Each presents new events focused on different race types like road, dirt, cross country, street scene and more.

Completing them unlocks the next chapter sections across the map, finally culminating in some climactic end game events.

For gamers pushing mainly through these core story events, most reports suggest an average playtime around 20-25 hours. This provides enough time to complete the key races while also free roaming a bit in between.

Per data aggregation site HowLongToBeat, main story completion takes:

• Average: 221⁄2 hours
• Rushed: 16 hours
• Leisure: 30 hours

So while some may plow through quicker or take more time smelling the roses, expect the main story to deliver at least a solid 20+ hours of playtime.

Complete All Races

While finishing the main Horizon Adventure story represents completing the game, that‘s really only showcasing part of what Forza Horizon 5 has to offer.

Venturing off the critical path reveals many additional side events and races scattered throughout the open world. These optional challenges provide extra variety with race types and locations not featured in main events.

They also are necessary for further game progression elements (like acquiring new cars, earning wheelspins, etc).

For completionist gamers wanting to win every possible race, the playtime estimate jumps to 40-60 hours.

This provides time to seek out and complete side races/stories separate from main campaign events. It also allows for more exploration between races compared to a main story rush.

Postgame Content

Even after cleaning up every marked race across Mexico, Forza Horizon 5 has plenty of additional challenges and collectibles for motivated players to hunt down:

• Barn Finds – Search the world to unlock and restore rare classic vehicles.
• PR Stunts – Danger Sign jumps, Speed Traps, Drift Zones. Set distance, speed, score records.
• Bonus Boards – Smash billboards and signs scattered throughout the map.
• Accolade Points – Special Achievements-like system with over 1,000 goals to complete.
• Forzathon Weekly Challenges – Limited time objectives awarding exclusive rewards.

These optional challenges represent a completionist‘s endgame. They take considerable time investment uncovering all collectibles, topping leaderboards, and hitting 100% game completion.

For gamers wanting to fully "beat" Forza Horizon 5, this postgame content adds another 30-50 hours. Bringing the total play time up to 80-100+ hours.

Individual Events – Goliath Example

While full completion represents the longest playtime, some singular events in themselves can take considerable real world time because of their marathon nature.

The prime example is the Goliath – an epic multi-lap race around the entire map. At 55km total distance just for 1 lap, it pushes vehicles and drivers to their absolute limit.

Completing the Goliath takes approximately 10 minutes per circuit. This makes the 1 lap version a nice long race event. But then there‘s also…

The Goliath: Endurance – 50 laps total

That‘s 50 consecutive laps around the entire map. At 10 minute estimate per lap, that translates to over 8 hours of continuous racing! An ultimate test of both driver skill and vehicle durability.

So while most players likely won‘t tackle the full 50 lap feat, it demonstrates how some key events in themselves can represent major time investments for those seeking ultimate bragging rights.

100% Completion Summary

Adding up main story races, optional challenges, collectibles, PR stunts and more – gamers wanting 100% completion can expect 80-120 hours playtime or potentially more.

Forza Horizon 5 doesn‘t lack things to do, even after end credits roll. Motivated players can sink dozens upon dozens of hours into mastering Mexico and standing atop the podium as Horizon Champion.

So however you decide to tackle it – full throttle or leisurely Sunday drive – Forza Horizon 5 offers no shortage of engaging content and gameplay longevity. Now let‘s fire up those engines!