How long does it take?

100 things and exactly how long they take. Word counts, runtimes and episode counts are fixed facts about finished works, so these answers are arithmetic — the only assumption is the rate, and every page states it in the open.

The assumption behind every reading time

Reading times use 238 words per minute, the figure from Brysbaert’s 2019 meta-analysis for adult silent reading of non-technical prose. It is the same rate the word-counter tool on this site uses, deliberately — two pages here giving different reading times for the same book would be worse than either being slightly off. Audiobook figures are given separately and never averaged in, because narration runs far slower than silent reading and blending them produces a number that describes nobody.

Longest first

Books

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone about 5 hours 23 minutes
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix about 18 hours
• The Hobbit about 6 hours 39 minutes
• The Bible about 55 hours
• War and Peace about 40 hours
• Infinite Jest about 40 hours
• Moby-Dick about 15 hours
• Ulysses about 19 hours
• Dune about 13 hours
• Pride and Prejudice about 8 hours 33 minutes
• Nineteen Eighty-Four about 6 hours 14 minutes
• The Great Gatsby about 3 hours 18 minutes
• Animal Farm about 2 hours 6 minutes
• It about 31 hours
• All 17

Book series

• The Harry Potter series about 76 hours
• The Lord of the Rings about 32 hours
• A Song of Ice and Fire 5 days 1 hour
• The Wheel of Time 12 days 20 hours
• The Stormlight Archive 6 days 9 hours
• The Chronicles of Narnia about 24 hours
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians about 28 hours
• The Hunger Games trilogy about 21 hours
• The Twilight saga about 41 hours

Films

• The Marvel Cinematic Universe about 83 hours
• The Infinity Saga about 50 hours
• The Star Wars Skywalker saga about 20 hours 26 minutes
• Every Star Wars film about 27 hours 7 minutes
• The Lord of the Rings films about 9 hours 18 minutes
• The Lord of the Rings extended editions about 12 hours 6 minutes
• All six Middle-earth films about 17 hours 12 minutes
• The Harry Potter films about 19 hours 39 minutes
• The James Bond films about 53 hours 28 minutes
• Every Pixar film about 52 hours
• Every Studio Ghibli film about 39 hours 30 minutes
• The DC Extended Universe about 33 hours 15 minutes
• The Fast & Furious films about 20 hours 42 minutes
• The Jurassic Park films about 14 hours 40 minutes
• All 17

TV series

• The Simpsons 12 days 8 hours
• Friends about 87 hours
• Breaking Bad about 49 hours
• Better Call Saul about 50 hours
• The Office (US) about 74 hours
• The Office (UK) about 7 hours 23 minutes
• Game of Thrones about 69 hours
• The Sopranos about 79 hours
• The Wire about 59 hours
• Grey's Anatomy 13 days 21 hours
• Seinfeld about 66 hours
• Modern Doctor Who about 157 hours
• Classic Doctor Who about 290 hours
• Star Trek: The Original Series about 67 hours
• All 16

Anime

• One Piece 19 days 12 hours
• The Pokémon anime 20 days 21 hours
• Naruto about 84 hours
• Naruto: Shippuden 7 days 23 hours
• All of Naruto, Shippuden and Boruto 16 days 4 hours
• Dragon Ball Z about 116 hours
• All of Dragon Ball 10 days 15 hours
• Bleach about 163 hours
• Attack on Titan about 37 hours
• Death Note about 13 hours 34 minutes
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood about 25 hours 36 minutes
• Hunter × Hunter (2011) about 59 hours
• Demon Slayer about 25 hours 12 minutes

Music

• The Beatles' discography about 8 hours 44 minutes
• Taylor Swift's discography about 18 hours
• Pink Floyd's discography about 12 hours 55 minutes
• Led Zeppelin's discography about 6 hours 55 minutes
• Queen's discography about 10 hours 47 minutes
• Metallica's discography about 12 hours 22 minutes
• Radiohead's discography about 7 hours 7 minutes
• Nirvana's discography about 2 hours 1 minute
• Eminem's discography about 13 hours 30 minutes
• Drake's discography about 13 hours 47 minutes
• Wagner's Ring cycle about 15 hours

Games

• Elden Ring about 53 hours for the main story
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim about 34 hours for the main story
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt about 52 hours for the main story
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild about 50 hours for the main story
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom about 59 hours for the main story
• Red Dead Redemption 2 about 50 hours for the main story
• Baldur's Gate 3 about 50 hours for the main story
• Persona 5 Royal about 102 hours for the main story
• Final Fantasy VII about 37 hours for the main story
• Grand Theft Auto V about 32 hours for the main story
• Cyberpunk 2077 about 26 hours for the main story
• Hollow Knight about 25 hours for the main story
• Portal 2 about 8 hours 30 minutes for the main story

Podcasts and audio

• Dan Carlin's Blueprint for Armageddon about 23 hours
• The Joe Rogan Experience about 310 days
• Serial season one about 8 hours 30 minutes
• S-Town about 6 hours 24 minutes