How long did it take you to finish the main story?

I know someone who despite having spent hundreds of hours on Oblivion, never managed to finish the main story. There was so much to do that they kept getting pulled away. I managed to complete Oblivion, but I haven't done so in Skyrim yet. I actually feel awkward getting distracted because the dragon issue seems serious enough for me to stay on track. When I'm into one particular series of quests I don't like to have to delay in following it either. Who here has finished the story and did it take a long time? I usually pace it out, doing a few side quests but returning back to the main one after a while. Do you run off and do other things as soon as you can or prefer to stay on track?

On my main character I did a million side quests. Yes, she was the Dragonborn, but there's also this whole war going on, and the Greybeards are sending her up and back and over to get things, prove things, learn things, and she's still who she is somewhere inside.

She takes the responsibility seriously, but she also takes the civil war seriously (and her eventual responsibilities within the Imperial army). She takes her love-life seriously (after it sneaks up on her). She takes her family very seriously.

What made me knuckle down to finish the main quest was the desire not to participate in the Dragonborn DLC until I'd defeated Alduin. It didn't seem narratively right to face "That's not a Dragonborn; THIS is a Dragonborn!" until I'd ended the major threat to Tamriel.

I still haven't explored more than half the Dawnguard DLC, and I've only finished building one Hearthfire house.

I'm still discovering places I hadn't encountered before.

On my self-indulgent "I've been transported to Skyrim, oh no!" character, I'm doing everything I can to avoid the main quest because I was transported into an Imperial raid, nearly beheaded, nearly killed by a shouty dragon, hauled out of the flames by I don't even know who, because it was all chaos, asked to tell the lord of the land thar be dragons, asked to help kill a dragon cause, "Hey, you survived one of those, once!", and also discovered I can magic prett heavily.

It's a bit overwhelming and terrifying as is. To throw in "You're the savior of the world, and our only hope, and also you have to kill a mega dragon, thanks," was like "Nope! Nope. I can't get out of here, but I don't have to be your thing. Nope."

So I'm hiding in the College at Winterhold. It's going to be a LONG while before I hit the main quest again.

When I played the first time with my main, I did do a roleplay. So it only seemed like a better story to roleplay my character saving Tamriel from the threat of this monster Alduin. She did go around and do millions and millions of sidequests. I didn't join the brotherhood or anything like that because she was a hero why would she stoop that low. I did finish most of the quests atleast once with one of my characters though. I had about a weeks worth of straight gameplay before I did the main story line. When I play, I get sidetracked so much looking at everything. I did rack up much more hours since then too.

3850 hours and counting.

Thanks to mods, I paused my main quest after delivering the Dragonstone to Farengar. It is now on indefinite pause until I decide I want Delphine to send me a letter to start things up again.

First run though on Xbox, I probably sped through the main quest in two days' worth of playing (real world, that is).

I also like pausing the civil war through truce indefinitely. It makes me feel important.

It took me over 120 hours just to finish the game, but then again I did do every side faction to completion.

This is before the expansions came out though. The time I have played after that is pushing the limits of dumb and obscene.

It took me hundreds of hours to finish the main story. It would have been short or longer depending on the amount of side quests I completed. Some will never complete the main story with all of the side quests and other things you can do.