Although some gamers love to settle in with a 60+ hour RPG or open-world experience, there are plenty of busy gamers who can’t get enough short, narrative experiences. With that in mind, we’ve gathered up some of our favorite games from the current generation that clock in at under 10 hours.
Cocoon
Gamers who love a puzzle are in for a treat if they haven’t checked out Cocoon yet. The 2023 puzzle adventure title from Geometric Interactive is a mind-bending experience. The short game is free of dialogue and features minimal cut-scenes, but offers players an immersive experience and delightful puzzles as they take control of a beetle who can hop between worlds.
Cocoon won The Game Awards prize for Best Debut Indie Game when it launched in 2023 and the full story can usually be finished in around five hours.
Hi-Fi Rush
Hi-Fi Rush’s 2023 shadow drop took gamers by surprise and helped make the rhythm-based action game an instant classic. The stylistic title was developed by Tango Gameworks and features an amazingly addictive and high-energy soundtrack for players who tap into as they master the rhythm-based combat system.
Hi-Fi Rush can be completed in right around ten hours, though gamers who get sucked into side quests and chasing difficult achievements could easily spend 15+ hours on this one.
Stray
2022’s Stray puts players in control of an adorable cat surrounded by a world of robots. The BlueTwelve Studio title immediately captured the gaming zeitgeist, but any players who skipped the title at launch should definitely circle back to this one immediately.
Stray is an adventure title where players, in the role of the kitty, attempt to escape the robot city and return to the surface world. The game features a mix of light platforming and puzzles as the player navigates the dangerous robot world.
The average Stray playthrough takes just around five hours. The game can easily be completed in just a few sessions for most players.
Jusant
Don’t Nod’s Jusant is a 2023 puzzle-platformer that is another quiet, introspective indie title to make the list. This game is all about the climb and tasks players with taking control of a lone wanderer as they attempt to reach the top of a massive tower.
Jusant’s main story can easily be completed in around five or six hours for most gamers. The game does feature some side content and optional sights to explore, so players who want to find every nook and cranny can spend closer to eight to ten hours on this one.
Citizen Sleeper
Citizen Sleeper just received a sequel in early 2025, but many gamers may not have checked out the original installment that kicked off the series yet. 2022’s Citizen Sleeper is a role-playing game that features a really interesting dice-rolling mechanic. Players have to manage their dice assignments to complete activities to progress the narrative and to maintain their degrading robot body. The system will likely appear to gamers who are also fans of TTRPGs.
Going into any more detail than that would get into spoiler territory, so we won’t expand on the game’s plot any further. Players can usually complete the main story in around eight or nine hours. It’s worth noting that this game does offer some DLC that could expand the experience out to around 14 hours if gamers are hooked after the main content has been completed. Players who finish the main story of Citizen Sleeper and want more can grab the three free DLC episodes—Flux, Refuge, and Purge. The three DLCs add about an extra 3–5 hours of gameplay that leads directly into the events of the 2025 sequel.
These are just a handful of highlights and gamers who tend to enjoy shorter experiences can find tons of additional bite-sized gaming experiences to explore from recent years. Most of the best examples do tend to be narrative or puzzle-based indie games, so players who want short experiences, but love open-world games or tactical RPGs might have a harder time finding something that matches both the length and gameplay style they are looking for.
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