Conveying total time spent over years

Question

I'm trying to say "I played a game for a TOTAL of 1880 hours or 78 days, over a 5 year period."

I'm a 102 student and we aren't even through the first Genki book yet so this is very hard for me to express with my current knowledge.

I found this and i think i can adapt it to work for me. When is it appropriate to choose にわたって or を通じて in regard to time?

試験のために、一年を通じて勉強した。

'I studied throughout the year without taking a holiday break (possibly for a few years) for the exam.'

Is this translation/adaption correct?

五年を通じて、ゲームを千八百八十時間か七十八日ぐらいしました。

'Over a 5 year period, I played a game for a TOTAL of around 1880 hours or 78 days.'

Answer 1

There is a word that native speakers frequently use but Japanese-learners rarely, if ever, do to express the idea of "cumulative total" without using a big Sino-loanword. That word is 「延{の}べ」.

You can say:

「５年間{ねんかん}で延べにして1,880時間{じかん}（78日間{にちかん}）ゲームをした。」 ,

「５年間で延べにして1,880時間（日数{にっすう}にして78日間）ゲームをした。」, etc.

If you want to sound a little more formal or technical by using a Sino-loanword, you can replace the 「延べにして」 part by 「累計{るいけい}で」.

Note I did not use 「５年を通じて」 because it is not too natural-sounding.