Detective Pikachu
Detective Pikachu is an adventure game developed by Creatures Inc. and published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. The game is a spin-off of the Pokémon franchise, in which the player works with a talking Pikachu to solve various mysteries. A shorter, downloadable version of the game called Great Detective Pikachu: Birth of a New Duo was released in Japan in February 2016, while the full version was released worldwide in March 2018.
Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA, read 5 September 2026.
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- Released
- 2018
- Developer
- Creatures
- Platforms
- 1 systems
- Critics
- Not scored
- Steam Deck
- Unknown
- Download
- Not stated
The record
| First released | 23 March 2018 |
|---|---|
| Developer | Creatures |
| Publisher | The Pokémon Company, Nintendo |
| Platforms | Nintendo 3DS |
| Genres | adventure video game |
Source. Catalogue facts from Wikidata Q22635280, seeded 30 August 2026.
How long is Detective Pikachu? How long to beat it
Total play time for Detective Pikachu is about 14 hours to do everything, and around 12.1 hours to reach the end of the main story. These are player-submitted times from HowLongToBeat, not our own, shown with the number of players behind each.
| How you play | Hours | Players logged |
|---|---|---|
| Just the main story: straight through the critical path | 12.1h | 114 |
| Main + the extras: story plus the side content most people do | 13.5h | 52 |
| Completionist: everything: 100% the game | 14h | 41 |
Source: HowLongToBeat community submissions, read 2026-10-19.
Where Detective Pikachu sits on the grid
The grid places every game in the catalogue on measured axes rather than on an opinion. This is where Detective Pikachu lands on each map it has the data for, with the share of the catalogue it beats on each axis.
- Year
- 88ahead of 53% of the catalogue
- Reach
- 38ahead of 79% of the catalogue
Percentiles are against the games that carry a reading on that axis, not the whole catalogue: counting a game with no figure as a zero would flatter everything that has one. How the grid works.
What readers say about Detective Pikachu
Reviews written by people who have played it. These are separate from the GamingPickz Score and are never averaged into it: that score comes from thousands of Steam reviews with a sample-size correction, and a handful of unverified ratings would distort it rather than improve it.
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Common questions about Detective Pikachu
What platforms is Detective Pikachu on?
Detective Pikachu is available on Nintendo 3DS. It first released in 2018.
Who made Detective Pikachu?
Detective Pikachu was developed by Creatures and published by The Pokémon Company, Nintendo.
How long does it take to beat Detective Pikachu?
about 12.1 hours for the main story, 13.5 hours with the main extras, 14 hours to complete everything, from HowLongToBeat's player-submitted times. These are community medians, so your own run may be shorter or longer.