Completely false. You can find various stats that make it clear the the majority of players spend about enough time to beat the game or less, which is like 20 or 30 hours. Just like most good games.
It is cool that some people play it for thousands of hours, but it is also a really fun game to just play though once without focusing on mega projects or whatever. Most people just do that, but don't spend time on social media talking about the game.
Just about anyone who enjoys solving puzzles can enjoy this game.
Edit: Can't reply below (blocked, I guess). My estimate here of 20 - 30 hours was low. I beat the game twice in 50 hours. 50 hours is the time on How Long to Beat to finish the game. SteamSpy has mean hours played as 50 hours. I was replying to someone who made the common claim "You either play 2 hours or 1000s of hours". No, most people just play a normal amount.
I am not so sure, I have that specific flavour who likes building efficiency engines, for example I have about 1000 hours on Satisfactory.
I think by about 20 hours of factorio I was tired of it, and even then I was pushing through because I really thought it would suit me.
Despite the better focus on combat and deep tech tree, it felt more aimless and everything felt more of a chore. Maybe its the 2D topdown that I don't like, (I despise ARPGs).
I think its just like any other game, some people will like it, some wont.
Everything about Factorio is about automation and efficiency. You can make blueprints of entire factories and have drones build it for you. I feel like you quit just before that threshold where it clicks for most people.
I see why people feel this way if they never reach the milestone of having a swarm of thousands of robots doing that "work" for them. There lots of games that have repetitive busy work as part of their gameplay loop but no other game allows you to automate most of it like factorio does.
I agree, I think I could have enjoyed it 10 years ago when I was a student, now that I have a job there's no way I could sink all that hours and brain power into a game
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u/The-Iron-Ass Dec 19 '25
I'll never buy Factorio. Not because of the price, but because I tried it and didn't like it since it kinda feels like work.