Games

Dota 2.

I've played Dwarf Fortress, Stellaris, yet I still find Dota to be the most complex game ever.

It sucks that it's a multiplayer game, and you need people to play it well with you, but when it works, it's amazing.

Everything in it has layers of usability, usually componded by the everything else in the game - hero abilities, items, map, neutrals, even the stupid trees play a large role in the game.

I've spent hundreds of hours studying the mechanics, and I still don't grasp everything.

I played a lot of DotA too, but that doesn't have a playtime counter. But I have over 3000 hours in Dota 2.

My second favourite game is OpenTTD. It's just so satisfying to optimize the train network and add another 100 trains to it. I've tried Factorio, but for some reason that did not scratch that itch.

Or some roguelites, like Slay the Spire (or the Touhou: Lost Branch of Legend), Synthetik (haven't tried second one yet), they are always fun.

DOTA 2 is my primary time waster, have over 3000+ hours on it. It's endlessly entertaining, because there is so much variability in the games. You have 4-8 spells depending on the hero, with 6 active item slots, which means once your team has leveled up, team fights can be a burst of seconds, or a 5+ minute long affair, with each tank employing different survival strategies to block damage, heal, or escape, just to heal and get right back in it. There are multiple different game modes, but are a little challenging to find and play. Still, it is the one game I play with the steepest learning curve. I don't think I saw myself as "good at the game" until I was around 1000 hours in 😶‍

Smite is the only other game I have 1000+ hours in. I started playing it as a break from DOTA 2, and as a way to connect with my little brother. It's a lot like DOTA 2, but far more simplistic. Each god has 4 spells, with no active items. Instead of left-clicking for movement on a map, you use WASD to maneuver your god. It's fun, and you can pick it up after like 30 hours. The different game modes are a lot easier to navigate than in DOTA, but it's also a lot less engaging. The updates and quests are all very simplistic. I was going to try out the new Smite 2, but after watching some game play, it looks... exactly the same as Smite 1.

Factorio: 2344 Path of Exile: 2736 Rimworld: 2191 Kerbal Space Program: 1071

I have a bunch of honorable mentions in the several hundred hours ranges that are only not 1k+ because I have severe ADHD and something else became a hyperfocus before they hit that point: Backpack Hero Ark The Last Spell Timberborn Factory Town Dyson Sphere Program Loop Hero Brotato Satisfactory Path of Achra Against the Storm Desynced

In descending order: Skyrim Fallout 4 Starfield

Morrowind is a game that has extreme hours too, but not sure if it is 1000+ (yet).

Per my steam library:

Factorio: 3,375.4 hours

Dyson Sphere Program: 2,505.9 h

Stellaris: 2,236.6 h

Terraria 2,629.9h

Skyrim: 1,239.5 h

Dungeon Defenders only has 600 hours on Steam, but I'm well over 2000 hours between Steam and PS3/4

I've also got a few thousand hours in Just Cause 2&3, as well as several Gran Turismo games and Forza Motorsport games. Morrowind probably has 2-3000 hours, oh and I'm not allowed near Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri anymore.

Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger are probably up there as well since I'll replay them every decade or so.

In order of most to least

D2 (thankfully there was tracker) WoW (i don't wanna know) PoE at about 4700 hours

Grim Dawn (currently playing Community Season 7! check it out @ https://grimdawnleague.com/, Dead Cells and Terraria (and most of that time unmodded - i just love building cozy or not so cozy homes).

The Binding of Isaac

World of Warcraft

Monster Hunter World and Don't Starve

terraria for me. i keep managing to find new stuff over a thousand hours later.

"Has this item always been here?! no way. REALLY?"

I have around 1700 hs in Destiny 2, and close to the same in Bloodborne. Over 1000 hours in the last 2 monster hunter titles. I've replayed resident evil 4 and castlevania sotn dozens of times.

So those are my most played games

Monster Hunter: Not all at once of course, but it's a game I keep coming back to. A friend in college introduced me to it on the psp and I was invested. I've had some version of it somewhere since, and I don't think I've ever removed it from my psp either.

Overwatch: This is from before the change, but it became a comfort game. There were no chats, and I didn't have to be in voice chat. I was low level (bronze), but I was content. I still play here and there, but I may get a match or two in before I leave out. Back in the day I could play for hours.

Team Fortress 2

Oxygen Not Included- very detailed colony sim where scientific things like heat exchange, air pressure, etc. are essential for survival. I swear, my next file will be perfect...

If you like space games, X3 and X4 can probably eat up lots and lots of your time. Space Engineers if you're less interested in flying, space economics and creating a supply chain (which X lets you) and more in gathering materials and creating all sorts of weird, funny or actually amazing stuff. SE is probably better played with at least 1 other person, possibly more, while X is exclusively single player.

Grand Strategy games can also obliterate your free time. Civilization 5, any Total War game. Hell, Age of Empires 2 can have very long matches if you play on huge maps and people have loved that game for over 20 years.

You can also go for Fallout 4 or Skyrim with extra content mods, like dungeons, quests or areas.

Personally, I'm just past 400h on Palworld, so I'd recommend it as well. I've played from start to "finish" some 4 times by now. Official servers will be wiped sometime in December, possibly with a new patch arriving, but you can always play single player and even invite a friend to play on your local save and never lose progress (unless the save gets corrupted, which can happen).

Civ 6, Fallout 4

Team Fortress 2. There's just so many different ways to play the game with its combination of classes, weapons and game modes!

Rocket League

Rimworld, and Football Manager (although they last one I played is 2020)

Guild Wars 2, so far I put 4,800+ hours into it.

I like that it has so many kinds of solo and group content that I can just do whatever I'm in the mood for that day.

A long time ago now I spent over 10,000 hours on world of warcraft. I wouldn't really recommend getting into it now though, I think the magic is gone.

Kerbal Space Program

I’m well above a thousand hours on the first game. Then all my flying sims (MSFS, Xplane, DCS, Elite Dangerous) also have a very high hour count. But for civilian airliners most of those hours are spent AFK in cruise.

cracktorio

I've also mostly enjoyed online multiplayer games, but I play a bit of everything. I think these are the games I've played most in order it must be:

World of WarCraft - Been at it since a year or so after it originally launched. Played a lot of Guild Wars 1 before that, and also lots of other MMO games before and in between, but WoW is the one I always keep coming back to. Longest break must've been like 6-7 years around the Cataclysm expansion, and then back at it at the end of Legion. It's on the back burner now again because of another mediocre expansion, but I still check it out occasionally. I think I must've sank at least 5000+ hours (probably way more) into this game over the past 20 years.

Elite Dangerous - Been backing it since Kickstarter, had high hoped for the game and it was fun while it lasted. But I lost all hope in Frontier in managing this game. They're only focusing heavily on microtransactions, currencies and paid early access content now. Must've been about 1500-2500 hours or something, but I've been out of this one for a couple of years now. I had high hopes for the future of this game, but Frontier is a master of promising glory and delivering disappointment.

Squad - Last, but certainly not least for me, around 1400 hours playtime (including the testing branch client). Got into this game right when it launched into early access on Steam. Was very tired of the themepark rides that Battlefield and CoD were turning into, but didn't want to commit to Arma's milsim style either. Squad fits in between perfectly. Also one of the greatest game communities I've got the pleasure to be playing with, never had so much fun with completely random strangers. The mandatory voice-chat really ties it together to create amazing and fun moments. This game really taught me that voice chat in games can actually be good, and not just kids spitting insults.

That said, I have a lot of games on multiple platforms, that I usually won't ever hit a 1000+ hour mark on most of them anyway. Like I played Witcher 3 twice (and a half I think). But that's like only 150 hours or so total. And this year's favorite has been Helldivers 2 by far, but that's only been almost 300 hours so far.

FIFA.