Many players acquire a title, dedicate a few hours to exploring the game's universe, but end up not returning. This pattern of behavior is more frequent than imagined, given that in many games, less than half of participants manage to reach the end of the narrative, which raises the question: what leads so many people to quit a game?
The cause may seem simple, such as excessively challenging games or campaigns that are too prolonged. However, examples like Elden Ring and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 demonstrate that the correlation between difficulty, playtime, and completion is much more intricate.
Although the notion that only four in ten players finish a game serves as a starting point for debating this phenomenon, there is no universal completion rate applicable to all titles. These indices fluctuate depending on the specific game, the platform used, and the period when the data was collected.
When Elden Ring was released, nearly three weeks after its launch in March 2022, achievement data released by Gamereactor indicated that only 17% of players on the Steam platform had reached one of the endings of the RPG developed by FromSoftware. At that time, approximately 30% had still not managed to defeat Margit, one of the first major bosses in the adventure.
These numbers highlight how difficulty can act as an obstacle to progress, especially in games that require continuous learning, exploration, and repeated confrontations.
There is also the element of perceived challenge. In 2025, creators of The First Berserker: Khazan observed that a portion of players chose to stop the campaign instead of selecting Easy difficulty. Creative Director Junho Lee reported that the name of this mode generated a stigma that discouraged its use. In response, the team implemented new difficulty settings, including a Beginner mode. This case demonstrates that simply providing alternatives is not enough; the way they are presented also influences the decision to continue playing the game.
If duration were the determining factor, shorter campaigns should show considerably higher completion rates. However, this is not always the case. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, released in May 2024, has an estimated duration of six to seven hours. Despite this, about two weeks after its release, only 13% of players had unlocked the completion achievement on Xbox. On Steam, the completion rate was approximately 33% during that period.
The disparity between platforms suggests that access to the game can also impact the results. Since Hellblade 2 was available on Xbox Game Pass from the start, subscribers could experience the game without an individual purchase cost, making it easier for players to start the campaign out of mere curiosity and abandon it if they were not interested in the experience.
It is crucial to note that these percentages reflect specific moments after the releases and do not constitute final completion rates, given that many players continued advancing in their respective campaigns.
Although difficulty and duration can contribute to abandonment, they are not the complete explanation. A game may lose public interest due to repetitive progression, a slow narrative pace, unengaging mechanics, or simply by competing with other releases for players' available time.
There is also a distinction between quitting a game out of frustration and pausing a campaign because the experience has already satisfied what the player was looking for. In open worlds, for example, exploring the map and completing side activities can be more appealing than finishing the main plot.
Additionally, achievement statistics cannot reveal individual motivations. They only quantify how many people reached a specific goal, but they do not clarify why the others stopped.
The cited examples of Elden Ring, Hellblade 2, and Khazan converge on one conclusion: there is no single reason why players leave a campaign. More than seeking ideal duration or difficulty, the developers' challenge lies in sustaining the public's interest throughout the journey, as finishing a game is not necessarily the only way to appreciate it.
