Hollow Knight
One purchase, four expansions given away free, and multiple real endings around 27 hours in — a zero that stayed a zero even after the game became a hit.
The cost, in short
Pressure
000
To ending
027hrs
Scripted ending exists
How this rating was reached
Score of 0 matches the Portal, Hades and Stardew Valley anchors: no purchase of any kind exists after the box price. Reinforced by all four content expansions being released free rather than sold. 27 hours reflects aggregated player-submitted main-story times (HowLongToBeat data as reported by Game Rant, which states its figures come from HowLongToBeat); the same source reports ~42 hours with extras and 64.5 completionist, rising to ~104 with all DLC. hasEnding is true — the game has multiple discrete scripted endings depending on progress before the final encounter. estimatedCostToProgress is left blank deliberately: nothing exists to progress toward beyond the purchase price, so the field does not apply. The $15.00 figure in the text is the published Nintendo US store price; the Steam US price is not restated because the Steam page served a euro-localized listing when checked.
The monetization, in full
Nothing is for sale inside the game. No in-app purchases, no currency, no cosmetics, no season pass. Nintendo's own store listing shows no in-app purchases at all.
The detail that makes this notable rather than merely clean: all four content expansions — Hidden Dreams, The Grimm Troupe, Lifeblood and Godmaster — were released free to everyone who owned the game. A successful game charging nothing for years of additional content is the exception, not the norm, and it is the reason this scores a true zero rather than a low number.
The endings are real, and there is more than one
Aggregated player-submitted times put the main story at around 27 hours, rising to roughly 42 with side content and 64 for full completion — over 100 if the expansions are included. The game has multiple distinct endings depending on what you have done before the final encounter.
That range is worth reading carefully. Twenty-seven hours is a real finish line, but the gap between it and the completionist figure is unusually wide, which tells you most of this game's content is optional rather than on the critical path.
What it costs
Nintendo's US store lists the game at $15.00. We take the price from a platform holder's own store page rather than from press coverage, and we do not restate the Steam price because Steam served a euro-localized page when we checked and we do not publish figures we have not read.
Sources
- 01Hollow Knight — Nintendo Switch store listingNintendo (platform store) ·
Full method behind these ratings: see our methodology.
Ratings are editorial judgments based on the sources cited above. They are not a guarantee of current pricing or mechanics, which can change after publication — check the source directly before making a purchase decision.