It's a practical reality that most fiction has to end. Writers have to stop typing, movie scripts cannot continue indefinitely, and even most TV series cannot create endless series. This holds true for most video games, which follow standard conventions in having a definitive ending to their story and sometimes even their gameplay.
However, this isn't true for all of them. With the potential for video games to have randomized elements, a replayability factor, or simply open-ended gameplay, some games can be played from now until the cows come home.
Updated by Sage Ashford, December 30th, 2022: Gaming as a hobby has plenty of titles fans find endless hours of enjoyment from. Though single-player games might be popular for a time, in the end, the games that stick with fans the most tend to be games they can play for hundreds of hours. With that in mind, we've added more games that never really come to an end.
15 LittleBigPlanet's Official Gameplay Is Only Just The Beginning
The LittleBigPlanet games come with single-player campaigns that provide gameplay challenges and tell a story. Still, their real purpose is to serve as an introduction to the gameplay and various level-building tricks and techniques players can make use of. Instead, the point of the game is to serve as a series of design and construction tools.
The real meat of the game is the ability to create custom maps and levels and to play those created by others. With more levels available than anybody could realistically complete — and the potential to create more at any time — the LittleBigPlanet series has a practically endless series of content coming from the minds of gamers.
14 Minecraft's End Doesn't End The Game
The most famous open-ended sandbox game of all time, Minecraft, has no end. Instead, the game emphasizes player freedom, allowing individuals to choose how they interact with the world. Completely objectless for a long time, Minecraft now includes a goal: the realm entitled The End, and its boss, the Ender Dragon.
However, despite reaching The End — requiring a lengthy quest, a boss fight, and even showing an unusual credits sequence afterward — this doesn't actually end the game. Instead, the player is free to continue playing as long they like — with certain content only available after defeating the Ender Dragon — doing whatever they want in the game's endless worlds.
13 Dwarf Fortress Has No Real Objectives
A common way to make a game endless is to give players a box of tools and gameplay elements and see what they do with them. Base-building roguelike Dwarf Fortress is a prime example of this style. The game offers many elements with its aim of allowing players to control and manage a complex base, but it provides neither directions nor quests.
Instead, players try and build bases and keep their dwarves alive in the face of a very hostile world. Most players accept the endpoint being when their fortress falls, and their dwarves die horrible deaths, but nothing is stopping them from making a secure, happy base that can stretch on indefinitely.
12 Animal Crossing Welcomes Players For As Long As They Like
A notoriously relaxing and welcoming series, the Animal Crossing games only have one real gameplay objective: the player paying off their mortgage and tend to leave everything else up to the player's choice. The games contain a theoretically endless wealth of content for players with social, gathering, and design aspects.
Although some may feel that they are finished with the game once they pay off their mortgage, design a house they like, and donate everything necessary to the museum, nothing keeps players from continuing their game. They may try out endless house designs, enjoy socializing with their villagers, or simply try and make as much money as possible trading turnips.
11 Call Of Duty Zombies' Individual Rounds Don't Even End
Call of Duty: Zombies is not officially a game in and of itself, but actually a package of side content running throughout the series with its own storyline and gameplay conventions. Much of the Call of Duty franchise, being very multiplayer-focused, has no actual ending, with players encouraged to continue to play round after round.
Zombies takes things one step further, however. In addition to the Zombies maps being infinitely replayable, they tend not to end except with the players' deaths. Barring the few with alternate ending conditions, they can go to a theoretically infinite number of waves if the player is skilled and determined enough.
10 Reigns Gives Players An Endless Dynasty If They Fail
Reigns paints itself as a political ruling simulator, with the player controlling the lives of kings by making a series of binary decisions. However, it does have a hidden storyline objective: defeating the Devil, who threatens to claim the souls of the game's rulers unless they can outwit him.
The Devil can be defeated at a pre-defined point during the game. If the player does it successfully — or gets close but fails — the game ends. If they have not progressed that far in the questline by the time the Devil comes for the third time, however, nothing happens, and the player can continue running their dynasty forever.
9 The Sims Is As Free-Form As The Life It Simulates
One of the most famous life sims ever is The Sims series. Giving the player control of a family or group of people, the games have the players interact with their virtual, semi-autonomous video game avatars. Although the games have some guidance, they have no concrete objectives for the players.
Instead, players make their own fun by helping their Sims prosper, find happiness, and live fulfilling lives or by luring them into terrible and lethal situations. The game can continue through generations of Sims, with both birth and death present in the game.
8 Stardew Valley Has Enough Content To Be Played Indefinitely
Farming sims and similar games tend to be designed to be endless, as there is no natural stopping point for a game dedicated to farming and interacting with others. Stardew Valley has goals for the players, like repairing the Community Center, getting married, and reaching the bottom of the Mines, but it also has plenty to do beyond that.
After a reasonable amount of hours put into the game, the player will likely have seen most of the game's events, driven off Joja Corp, and passed their grandfather's evaluation, but that doesn't mean they're done. From there, they can explore the Valley's secrets, focus on their social attachments with other characters, or get as much money as possible.
7 Monster Hunter: World Has Endless Quests
Monster Hunter: World has a fairly lengthy story, as does its expansion Iceborne. However, despite spanning several tens of hours, these stories typically serve more as introductions to the world and gameplay than anything else. Ending at relatively low Hunter Ranks, completing the storylines simply opens the bulk of the game's content up to players.
Once Xeno'jiva in the base game (Shara Ishvalda in Iceborne) has been defeated, the fun truly begins. Players gain access to the higher Hunter Rank quests in the base game. In Iceborne, the player can reach the Guiding Lands, and the rest of the game is spent facing ever-increasing challenges while acquiring new weapons, armor, and decorations. Even after defeating the game's most challenging monsters, there are still Events, Investigations, and replayable missions to pursue.
6 Don't Starve Together Lasts As Long As The Players' Food
Survival games are another genre of games that typically last forever or until the player dies. However, the original Don't Starve has an Adventure Mode, which gives the player a goal to pursue and an ongoing storyline. Conversely, the multiplayer spinoff Don't Starve Together is more traditional.
Whether in a group or solo, a player simply survives in the Don't Starve Together world until they can't. There is a world to explore and plenty of things to do, but none of them will end the game. The only thing that will is everyone perishing to the elements, monsters, or starvation.
5 GTA Online Offers Endless Fun For Players & Their Friends
Rockstar has the most successful game of the last three generations with Grand Theft Auto V, thanks largely to GTA Online. It's an experience that's effectively never-ending, as Rockstar continues to add to it every few months. Everything Grand Theft Auto V does, GTA Online adds more of it. There are more cars, more races, and more heists.
There's also the potential to mess with other players online — popping into their sessions and attacking them. PC players have found even more fun with the GTA Roleplay mod, letting players roleplay as different NPCs in the game. More recently, Rockstar's even added single-player content, letting players hang out with GTA V protagonist Franklin and West Coast rapper Dr. Dre.
4 Warframe Keeps Updating & Revising Their Maps
The Warframe that exists now is nothing like the one when the developer launched it over a decade ago. Digital Extremes has put its everything into this game, which is why they've amassed a massive fanbase. The updates to this game aren't merely cosmetic; there are substantive content changes added semi-regularly.
To begin with, the game is up to over 50 different Warframes at this point. They've also added three different open-world segments for players to experience the wider galaxy. Even when players have finished the "campaign," though, they can keep playing to add new Warframes to their selection while upgrading the ones they already have.
3 No Man's Sky Allows Exploration Of An Entire Galaxy
Hello Games really put in the work to make No Man's Sky an experience players can dump thousands of hours into. That's not to say there aren't stories — there's multiple different stories available for the player to experience. There's also plenty of lore for people to learn about the universe they're in.
There's no one singular objective to play for, however. Getting to the center of the galaxy is fun, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. Players can create their own settlements on planets, purchase a fleet of ships, and build massive bases to live in. The limitations are entirely on the players' imagination.
2 Final Fantasy XIV Has Been Telling A Long-Term Story
Final Fantasy XIV has been pulling players since they relaunched the game with A Realm Reborn. Since then, Square-Enix has kept players coming back as they've expanded the world of Eorzea. There's an ongoing story that frequently manages to be one of the best-performing Final Fantasy games on Metacritic whenever it launches for people who prefer single-player games.
People can find access to far more content in the game if they're willing to do more than single-player, though. MMOs, by nature, are meant to be never-ending. The dungeons and raids are repeatable, allowing the player to constantly find newer, better gear. Meanwhile, there are always new jobs to try and skills to invest in, turning this into a game people can play forever.
1 Genshin Impact Invites Players To Max Out Their Characters
In one of the biggest gacha games in the world right now, miHoYo has players hooked into the world of Genshin Impact. For people who want it, the single-player story is still very much important to the main game's updates. Every new chapter gets the player one step closer to recovering his sister while also gradually adding more continents to the world of Teyvat.
Even players who don't want to play the main story will have plenty to keep playing for. Genshin Impact is constantly adding cool new waifus and husbando characters for players to buy. Those characters need to be leveled, get better weapons, and have their constellations maxed out. Attempting to do this for every character could take hundreds of hours — and likely thousands of dollars.