HowLongToBeat alternative and comparison
HowLongToBeat answers one question exceptionally well: how long will this game take? GamingList is built for the question that comes after — what have you played, what did you think of it, and what is next. The two overlap, but they lead with different things.
Comparison last reviewed July 30, 2026. GamingList is our product; competitor strengths are included intentionally.
| Area | GamingList | HowLongToBeat |
|---|---|---|
| Core purpose | A personal game tracker: your backlog, ratings, reviews and public gaming profile | A crowd-sourced completion-time database, with tracking built around it |
| Completion times | Estimated rushed, main-story and completionist times shown on each game page, sourced from IGDB | Community-submitted times across Main Story, Main + Extras, Completionist and Speedrun, the largest dataset of its kind |
| Backlog statuses | Seven states: Currently Playing, Paused, Replaying, Completed, Dropped, Plan to Play and Waiting for Sale | Personal lists covering playing, completed, backlog and retired games |
| Ratings and reviews | 1–10 score plus optional category sub-ratings for gameplay, story, visuals and world, with written reviews | User scores and written reviews alongside submitted completion times |
| Library imports | Steam, Xbox and PlayStation library imports | Steam library import |
| Achievements and trophies | Unlocked-versus-total progress with per-achievement detail and global rarity, across Steam, Xbox and PlayStation | Focused on completion times and personal stats rather than achievement syncing |
| Profile expression | Favorites, 3×3, About You card, stats, reviews, achievements and profile comparison with friends | Personal statistics, lists and community submission history |
| Mobile app | Native iPhone app on the App Store, with Android in progress | Primarily used through the website |
| Board games | A separate board-game catalog with its own list, ratings and reviews | Focused on video games |
| Data export | CSV export of your full video-game list, including hours played and notes | Personal stats and lists viewable in your account |
HowLongToBeat has spent well over a decade building the definitive crowd-sourced database of game completion times. Nothing else comes close for checking whether a game is a weekend or a hundred-hour commitment, and its Main Story, Main + Extras, Completionist and Speedrun breakdowns are genuinely useful before you buy.
GamingList treats the backlog itself as the product. Seven distinct statuses, 1–10 score diamonds with category sub-ratings, Steam, Xbox and PlayStation imports, achievement and trophy progress, profile comparison, board-game tracking and a native iPhone app are aimed at players who want a lasting record and a profile worth sharing.
If you want a reference for how long games take, HowLongToBeat remains the better tool and we would not pretend otherwise. If you want somewhere to keep years of playing history — scores, reviews, hours, achievements and a profile your friends can actually browse — GamingList is designed around that, with completion estimates included on every game page.
It depends what you use HowLongToBeat for. If you mainly look up how long a game takes, HowLongToBeat has the deeper dataset and is hard to replace. If you want a permanent home for your backlog, ratings, reviews and a shareable gaming profile, GamingList is built for that first and still shows completion estimates on every game page.
Yes. Game pages show estimated rushed, main-story and completionist times sourced from IGDB. These are estimates rather than HowLongToBeat’s community-submitted averages, which come from a much larger pool of player submissions.
Yes. GamingList imports Steam, Xbox and PlayStation libraries into one list, and you can add Nintendo and older console games manually. The platform is recorded per entry, so the same game can be tracked wherever you played it.
Players whose main need is accurate completion-time data, or who contribute their own times to the community dataset, are well served by HowLongToBeat. Its time database is its strongest asset and has years of submissions behind it.
Many players do. HowLongToBeat is a reference you check before starting a game, while GamingList is the running record of what you played, what you scored it and what you want to play next. They serve different moments.
Import a Steam, Xbox or PlayStation library, then rate and organize what you have already played.