The estimate of playtime I’ve had in my head in for years is basically as follows:
- The microbe stage should take about 2 hours to complete
- Then the further stages should only take about an hour more
- So multicellular would take maybe around 3 hours
- Aware and awakening maybe 4 each
- Then the strategy stages would take maybe about 5-ish hours each. With probably the industrial stage being a bit shorter
I think a reasonable Thrive playthrough length would be then around 25-30 hours, of course depending on how determined the player is to get through the game. I feel like that’s about the optimal length as Thrive is also about different playstyles, so that gives the chance for players to try 2-3 different playstyles. Of course people who want to put a ton of time into Thrive to explore everything could easily stretch each playthrough probably to at least double the length and do many more playthroughs.