"Should I drop this game?" is the question that keeps a game backlog growing. I run a free game backlog tracker, so I looked at what people actually drop. Data from 129 accounts and 25,276 games, as of 2026-11-10.
How rare is "Dropped"?
- 770 games are marked Dropped, which is 3% of all games.
- 48 of the 129 people have dropped at least one. The other 81 never used the status.
- 2,899 games are Done (11.5%), so people finish about 3.8 games for every one they drop.
Dropped games are longer
For games with HowLongToBeat times (725 dropped, 2,770 done, 18,960 in backlog):
| Status | Average main story | Median |
|---|---|---|
| Done | 18.7 h | 11 h |
| Dropped | 24.7 h | 12 h |
| Backlog | 13.6 h | 4 h |
The medians for done and dropped games are almost the same, so length alone doesn't explain why a game gets dropped. The average is higher for dropped games (about 32% more), which means the very long games are where people give up. Games in the backlog are much shorter on the median: people add short, cheap or free games first and leave the big ones alone.
What I'd do with this
- Set a rule before you start. "If I haven't touched it in a month, it goes to Dropped" is easier than deciding while you feel guilty.
- Be extra careful with 25+ hour games. That is where the average pulls away. Start those only when you have a free stretch.
- Dropped is a status, not a failure. A game backlog that never uses it can only grow. Moving a game out of the list is the cheapest way to make it shorter.
- You can come back. The status is a label, not a delete button.
Caveats
It's a small, self-selected sample, and some of the 770 may be games a person dropped before they started tracking. HowLongToBeat times exist for 725 of the 770 dropped games, so the table doesn't cover all of them.
What is your rule for dropping a game in your game backlog?
