Games

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord with some mods took long enough to give up for me.

For some context I have insomnia. Stellaris isa game I've been able to fall asleep playing. Eventually it auto pauses but that's fine. It's a game I will always play because I find it peaceful and relaxing

Factorio, Warframe, Minecraft, Dota 2. However, the only two I'd still recommend are Factorio and Minecraft. Warframe's grind seems to have finally burned me out for good, Dota 2 is bad. You're not gonna have fun with Dota 2. The game concept is good, but like most competitive online games, the community fucking sucks.

In addition to Factorio and Minecraft, try Voices of the Void, The Long Drive, WEBFISHING, and Balatro.

Edit: oh yeah, and personally I have both Sims 2 and Sims 4 w/ all DLC (yeah, I toootally bought all the dlc) installed on my steam deck. Both fun games with their own ups and downs. Sims 2 is great vanilla, Sims 4 is great when heavily modded. Don't bother downloading the F2P version of Sims 4 from Origin if you're wanting to mod it with stuff like sacrificial's mods. Those'll break with every major update (and sometimes minor updates too!) and you can't pause updates anymore. So, you'll have to find alternative methods.

The only two games I have that I've put more than 1000 hours in are Factorio and Rimworld. I'd highly recommend both.

Trackmania 2020. Great example of a game that is simple in concept but super deep in skills that you can both play super casually at your own pace or super competitively. Plus there is a great community and endless content to play.

Warframe. Inching closer to 3.000h currently.

It does come in waves, but every once in a while I go all in again and lose myself in the infinite things you can do.

I'm amazed nobody has mentioned Kerbal Space Program (first one). That and TF2 are my most played

Team Fortress 2

Rocket League

Elite Dangerous is my go-to lately.

It's different to most other games by not being goal-oriented, except for the goals you set for yourself. No main quest line dictating progress. No mandatory tasks. No win condition. Instead, it drops you into a simulation of our entire galaxy roughly 1300 years in the future, where humanity has mastered hyperspace travel and spread through hundreds of star systems.

I like that it offers a variety of activities to fit whatever mood I might be in on a given day. I can hunt pirates, mine asteroids, engage in a bit of piracy myself, find and collect bio samples, infiltrate rival settlements, venture into vast unexplored areas of space, discover Earth-like worlds that nobody has ever encountered before, defend humanity against hostile forces, photograph beautiful stellar phenomena, rescue stranded survivors, customize and finely tune my ship to perform beyond its original specs, team up with friends, pledge to a political power and expand their influence, or chill out as a space trucker and haul cargo to earn enough money for my next upgrade. It can occupy all my attention, or just be relaxing entertainment while I listen to music or an audiobook.

It's an MMO in the sense of having a large game world (galaxy) shared by all players in real time, but PvP is optional. One play mode exposes you to other players, while another limits you to NPC encounters. You can switch between them at will.

One warning: A space ship has more than a few controls to learn, and they're better suited to a game controller or HOTAS than a keyboard and mouse. I use button combinations for almost everything beyond basic flight controls, since there aren't enough buttons on a controller for everything.

I don't think I've ever played a game more than 200 or 300 hours.

I think Destiny is the only game I ever put over 2,000 hours into, but Factorio might take the crown soon - 1800 and counting.

L4D2. built a new computer for that game specifically after loving L4D. super fun arcade shooter that will never be uninstalled from my computer.

Monster Hunter. The first one I played, MH4U back in the 3DS days, I put 1,000 hours into. That was nearly 10 years ago, and I'm still playing the franchise to this day. Currently finally going through the Sunbreak expansion of Monster Hunter Rise on the PC, and noticing a marked improvement in my mental health over playing other games.

Factorio, it's fun from the first minute but you'll still be learning new things after 1000 hours.

Dark Age of Camelot

Not a favourite anymore but still beats my second most played games by a factor of 4... Warframe was fun at the beginning and really clicked at about 200hrs. I left after about 2200hrs because I burned out but it still has a place in my heart.

Project Zomboid, Rimworl, Dwarf Fortress, Stellaris, Starsector...

There was a moment in my life when I thought that perhaps I was outgrowing games... that they were just not really designed for the entertainment of adult human beings in a way that could satisfy me. Not one of my old stand-bys could, as you said, "scratch the itch" or provide "the same enjoyment that it used to." I found myself spending more time with films and books.

Then I got into FromSoft games and indie titles, and within a year I realized games still held incredible experiences for me. I hadn't outgrown games. I had only outgrown the bland slop represented by most AAA releases, and especially by online multiplayer releases. Personally, I'd recommend giving up on looking for a new 1000+ hour obsession. Instead I'd recommend seeking a broad array of 10-100 hour loves. If you haven't already tried them, for me a love of gaming was saved primarily by: Dark Souls, FTL, Spelunky, and Hollow Knight.

No Man's Sky. A foot deep but a mile wide.

If you're a Destiny refugee, the most obvious answer is Warframe, which just keeps on getting better and better.

I've been playing Tf2 for over 1.5k hours now. I recommend you to try it out There's a reason why that game from 2007 is still not dead.

Sims 2 Skyrim Stalker franchise (including mods) Doom 2 Vrchat Arma franchise Halo franchise World of warcraft .... I may have a problem.

If it clicks with you Monster Hunter (World+Iceborne’s a good starting point) can easily eat up hundreds of hours of your time grinding and doing endgame content, especially if you have a group to play with.

Final Fantasy XI. I'm almost exactly 1,000 hours into it, and only halfway through the storyline. I haven't even touched end-game content. I'm playing on a free private server called HorizonXI that is well-populated and feels more like the game when it came out versus the modern day solo experience.

Slay the Spire

X4 Foundations... This sucks people life: you start a game when the sun goes to sleep, one second later the sun wake up 😅

I have one game with 1000+ hours and that is Squad. It's the only online game I play anymore as it is the only game that has teamwork/communication (it takes be back to Battlefield 2 days) and none of the shit like battle passes etc.

My gaming habits are just playing lots and never finishing anything... but I have fun still.

Mine are:

Any Fallout or Elder Scrolls

Diablo 2 or 3

Stardew Valley

Borderlands 2

And I never consider it a real game, but I do sink the most hours in Hearthstone. I've been playing it almost daily for the past ten years.

Path of Exile.

I'd say I'm a fairly mid-tier player, get better with each season I play, the breadth of mechanics and depth of complexity is mind breaking. I've only played like 2000 hours though, I'll get it all figured out eventually... Right?

Stellaris

Play DayZ! so I can force feed you rotting bananas after I break your legs with the wrench so you can't get away! 😈

lol the problem with Destiny is they turned it into a treadmill and stopped putting the work into character and level design.

Elden Ring can easily take more than 100 hours on your first playthrough, and different builds significantly change your play style.

BG3, similar deal. Subsequent playthroughs are probably going to be accelerated, but there are a bunch of different story choices you can make that feel different, the party members have their own story lines, there's a special custom character called Dark Urge that's intended for a later playthrough that has it's own twist, and you can change the strategy of encounters a lot with different party constructions.

Rimworld calls itself a story generator because you're going to fail and have people die and whatever, but every game plays out different, there are a good couple scenarios, and there's expansions and mods you can add on top of that for variety.

Just the first couple that come to mind. I'm not near 1000 hours on any of them, but they all have a lot of content.