Game backlog calculator: how long to clear the pile

What this calculator does

A backlog is a queue with an arrival rate and a service rate, and most people only ever measure one of them. Counting the unplayed games tells you the size of the pile. It does not tell you whether the pile is growing.

That second question has a clean answer. If you finish fewer games per month than you buy, the backlog never clears regardless of how many hours you put in, and no amount of playing faster fixes an arrival rate problem.

The formula

Formulagames finished per month = (hours per week × 52 ÷ 12) ÷ hours per game; net = that minus games added per month; months = backlog ÷ net

Your hours per week become hours per month by multiplying by 52 ÷ 12, which is 4.33 and not 4. Divide by the average hours a game takes to get games finished per month, then subtract the games you add per month to get the net rate. The backlog divided by that net gives the time to clear. If the net is zero or below, there is no answer, which is itself the answer.

Term	Meaning
Backlog	Games owned and not finished. Be honest rather than optimistic.
Hours to finish	An average across the pile. Long role-playing games distort this badly.
Net rate	Games finished per month minus games added per month.
Break-even hours	The weekly play time at which you exactly keep pace with buying.

The inputs explained

Field	What to enter
Games in the backlog	How many unplayed games you own. Count only the ones you actually intend to play.
Average hours to finish one (h)	Average hours to finish one. Use the main story rather than full completion unless you really do everything.
Hours you play per week (h)	Hours you actually play in a week, measured rather than hoped for.
Games added per month	Games added per month, including sales, bundles and gifts. This is the number people underestimate.

When to use it

Finding out whether the pile is shrinking

Set your real purchase rate rather than zero. A pile of 38 games at 18 hours each, played 7 hours a week, clears in about four and a half years while adding one game a month. Drop to 4 hours a week and it never clears at all.

Working out a buying budget

The break-even figure is the useful one in reverse: at 18 hours a game, each game you buy per month requires 4.15 hours a week just to stand still. That converts a purchase into a time commitment, which is the honest way to look at a sale.

Setting a realistic target

Try the hours you would actually enjoy playing rather than the maximum you could. A plan built on 20 hours a week that you sustain for three weeks is worse than one built on 7 that you keep.

Worked examples

Every figure in the tables below is produced by this page’s own calculator at build time, so the numbers and the tool always agree. Select any row to load that scenario.

How many hours a week does it take to clear a backlog?

Only the weekly play time changes.

38 games at 18 hours each, one new game a month

Hours played per week	Time to clear the backlog	Games finished per month	Net change per month
2 h	never, the pile grows at this rate	0.48	+0.52 games
4 h	never, the pile grows at this rate	0.96	+0.04 games
5 h	15.5 years	1.20	-0.20 games
7 h	4.6 years	1.69	-0.69 games
10 h	2.3 years	2.41	-1.41 games
20 h	10.0 months	4.81	-3.81 games

Below about 4.15 hours a week the pile grows and never clears, which is what the first two rows show. At 5 hours it takes 15.5 years. At 7 hours it drops to 4.6 years and at 20 hours to 10 months. The curve is brutal near the break-even point and flattens out quickly past it, so the first few extra hours a week are worth far more than the last few.

What does one more purchase a month cost?

The play time is fixed and the buying rate rises.

38 games at 18 hours each, 7 hours of play a week

Games added per month	Time to clear the backlog	Net change per month	Hours a week to break even with new games
0	22.5 months	-1.69 games	0.00
0.5	2.7 years	-1.19 games	2.08
1	4.6 years	-0.69 games	4.15
1.5	17.1 years	-0.19 games	6.23
1.68	610.7 years	-0.01 games	6.98

Buying nothing clears the pile in 22.5 months. Buying one game a month stretches it to 4.6 years, and one and a half games a month to 17.1 years. By about 1.69 games a month the arrival rate matches the finish rate and the pile becomes permanent. The last few rows are the point: a modest increase in buying has a far larger effect than the same increase in playing.

Questions

Why multiply weekly hours by 4.33 rather than 4?

Because a month is 52 divided by 12 weeks, which is 4.33. Using 4 understates your playing time by about 8 per cent, which compounds across a multi-year estimate.

My games vary enormously in length. Does the average work?

Reasonably, for a large pile. For a small one dominated by a single hundred-hour game, split it: work out that game separately and run the rest as an average.

Should I count games I will never play?

No. A bundle of twenty games you have no intention of starting is not a backlog, it is a list. Counting them makes the result meaningless.

What counts as finishing?

Whatever you mean by it, applied consistently to both the hours figure and the count. Main story and full completion can differ by a factor of three, so do not mix them.

Why does the time explode near break-even?

Because you are dividing by a net rate that is approaching zero. At a net of 0.04 games a month the arithmetic gives centuries, which in practice simply means the pile is not clearing.

For a single run against the clock rather than a pile, see speedrun pace. For turning an in-game grind into hours there is XP to next level.

Game backlog completion time calculator