How Long Does a Commander Game Take? Data From 186 Games

The short answer

Budget about an hour. If four players are shuffling up, budget closer to 70 minutes. And if your games regularly make it past turn 10, maybe do not promise anyone you will be home early.

Questions players are asking

• How long does an average Commander game take?
• How many turns does a Commander game usually last?
• Are four-player Commander games much longer than three-player games?
• Why do some EDH games finish in 40 minutes while others take two hours?

Anonymized PodLog data

• 58.6 min median — All completed games: All 186 games had usable duration data; the average was 63.5 minutes.
• 49.6 min median — Three players: The sample included 101 three-player games, averaging 53.7 minutes.
• 70.1 min median — Four players: The sample included 81 four-player games, averaging 75.4 minutes.

Anonymized sample: 186 completed games from one rotating PodLog group, October 17, 2025 through July 10, 2026. Duration was available for every game; final turn count was available for 134. These results describe this group, not Commander as a whole.

The answer we wanted: about an hour

When someone asks “one more?”, nobody wants a lecture about averages. The useful number in our 186-game history was the median: 58.6 minutes. Half of our games finished faster, and half took longer.

The average was a little higher at 63.5 minutes because Commander has a talent for producing the occasional marathon. Our middle half ran from 41.8 to 85.6 minutes. The longest 10% went past 101.8 minutes, which is worth remembering before starting game two on a work night.

The fourth chair cost us about 20 minutes

Our three-player games had a 49.6-minute median. Four-player games reached 70.1. That was the most useful split in the whole dataset: the answer to “one more?” changes when the fourth chair fills.

The records cannot tell us exactly why. The usual suspects are not mysterious, though. Another player means another hand, another board to read, and a lot more chances for somebody to say, “Wait, before that resolves.” We also had four five-player games, which is nowhere near enough to turn into a benchmark.

Turn 11 is where plans start slipping

We had final turn counts for 134 games. The ones that ended by turn 7 had a 40.4-minute median. Turns 8 through 10 landed right on 58.6 minutes. Games that made it to turn 11 or later took a median of 92.1 minutes.

Turn 11 is not cursed. It is just where board wipes, cautious attacks, and decks that rebuild without quite ending things can start piling up. Turn count helps separate a game with many ordinary turns from one where a few turns swallowed the evening.

• Turn 7 or earlier: 37 games, 40.4-minute median.
• Turns 8–10: 66 games, 58.6-minute median.
• Turn 11 or later: 31 games, 92.1-minute median.

Do not turn the result into a speed limit

This is planning data, not permission to glare at somebody for reading a new card. A recurring group can learn more from its own finished games than from one broad estimate for the entire format.

Keep abandoned games separate and compare player counts before deciding what fits into an evening. The point is not to rush the table. It is to know whether “one more” usually means another hour or another hour and a half.

Where this leaves the table

For our group, an hour is a fair answer. Three players often finished sooner. Four players—or a game that survived into double-digit turns—needed more room.

Your table may be faster, slower, or blessed with the friend who starts packing up while their final trigger is still on the stack. Track enough games and you can replace the guess with an answer that belongs to your group.