What are your favorite 1000+ hour games?

Dayz.

Just hit 3.5k hours and it's still the most exciting game I've ever played. Nothing else gives the same adrenaline kick as a good encounter or a fight in Dayz. Also a great game for meeting new people as talking to others in this game is a must.

cracktorio

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

Morrowind. Although it's more like play a few hundred hours every five years for me.

Minecraft. Probably have around 5000+ hours I think. Playing since I was 10(now 17). So, many wasted hours on Anarchy Servers and Ranked Bedwars.

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

Wow, so many posts 😵‍💫 Sooo I think I'll be the one to mention Elder Scrolls Online ^.^ I've got 1800 hours in that and miss it pretty bad v.v Am stuck on a laptop that can't run it (nor much else) playably :-\ Anyway, it's got many things to do. Three faction storylines, lots of side stuff (everything can be played at any level; people will take low-level characters into Trials and not even worry about it), crafting, character build funs deeper and more interesting than they seem, just plain wandering around peekifying all' the Elder Scrolls places... Idunno, it just somehow kept me of all critters hooked for quite a while, which is very odd. I tend to get bored of things realquick 😅

I only have 800 hours in it but I suppose I can second (or, well, nth) Warframe? 😅

Haven't been playing for a long time because I haven't set up the xbox in a long while, but Borderlands 1. Have been playing that game on and off more than a decade now. I don't think the base game (playthrough 1 only) on its own is 1000+ hours long, could be wrong, but it's long enough, especially with the DLCs. I think I've beaten playthrough 1 and 2 with 2-3 of the characters and have yet to beat all the quests with any of them because of a certain DLC boss fight quest.

It's a game I absolutely fell in love with. Started with the 2nd game, which my brother got, but I later got the 1st because I wanted to see how it was compared to 2 and I'm a bigger fan of the 1st game. Played the pre-sequel, it's fun but not as good as 1 in my opinion, and have no experience at all with 3.

Deep Rock Galactic

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.

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.

Alan Wake 1. It's one of the few games i can play over and over again and not get bored. Sometimes i'll just pop in and play a chapter when i want something to do. I keep it and it's sister game, Alan Wake's American Nightmare on system at all times just so i can play it

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

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

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.

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.

(To give an idea of the simulation's scope: Around 85 million systems have been recorded by players so far, and those are a vanishingly small fraction of what's out there. Space is big.)

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 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.

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.

Team Fortress 2

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

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.

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

Rocket League

Dark Age of Camelot

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

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.

Stellaris

Slay the Spire

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

Regarding the question itself, Starbound and Minecraft. Maybe Final Fantasy XII if I was to play it multiple times, as I take at the very least 100+ hours to finished it, and 250+ if I'm not in a hurry.

But regarding gaming fatigue, perhaps it could be a symptom of playing too much of only a handful of game styles? If you wouldn't mind, may I suggest to check some smaller games in length and scope, specially indies? Those tend to be rather diverse in their scopes and executions.

Huh, there's only like, 4 of these games for me total. TF2's still a bot-blighted hellscape as far as I know, my skyrim install is broken and the process of fixing it or just re-installing it will require a few days off, WoW is dead to me, and I don't really play warframe any more... so I guess Warframe wins by doing absolutely nothing!

nothing will ever top my smash bros melee hours. I could start now and I simply wouldn't be able to do it even if I picked the game I already have the next most hours in. I am also entirely unlikely to add any hours to melee, but it still wouldn't be feasible.

Why do they have to be 1000 hours? If you’re getting gaming fatigue you’re not going to fix that by sticking to the same genres you always play. Go onto Steam/gog/eshop/etc during the Black Friday sales next week and buy a big pile of 40 hour games for $3 each

(Mine is FFXIV, to answer your question)

Caves of Qud has nearly infinite replay value with all the random generations + mods. You can do nearly anything you set your mind to. Same with Project Ozone 3 (Minecraft mod). If you like goal orientated games that are multiplayer try Space Station 13. That shit is nuts, and I mean 13 not the 14 on Steam it doesnt have half of what the old one does. But the launcher is about to go out for 13 so get it while you can.

I found that Two Worlds had a lot of fuck around potential. You can infinitely combine weapons that are duplicates to strengthen them. I once killed every NPC in the entire game and used the resurrection spell on them so everyone was completely loyal to me even monsters.

If you can still find it. There was this online Pokémon game that was somehow realistic. You controlled your character typed ccommands for your Pokémon. And they were always alongside you when out of their ball. It was hardcore as shit. I got my cheeks clapped multiple tines trying to run to a different village by gangs of mankeys and caterpies. Nintendo is just drooling on the floor not doing this officially. It took forever to level, it was an extreme challenge to find stuff to evolve your Pokémon. Ugh I hope thats still out there somewhere.

A less spoken one nowadays that is also very fun is still the original Morrowind. Absolutely mind blowing how expansive that game is to this day. It is still just as legendary as it was back then even if it is a little dated. I actually come to like it when a game isn't guiding me on what to do in an RPG. It feels more immersive when I'm supposed to know what a Guar looks like.

Tetris.

I've only got a few. Several of them don't really track hours, but I know I've put over 1000 into them. Games like Super Smash Bros. (Melee, Brawl, and 4) and Rock Band 2.

Other than those, the only one I've measurably put 1000 hours into is Skullgirls, but Guilty Gear Strive will likely get there in a few years. Skullgirls is a game with so much depth that I can't imagine ever getting bored of it. If anything, I'd just lose motivation because I can't see the path to improving, but I'll definitely never see every permutation of strategies you can employ by combining characters together. Guilty Gear Strive has so many creative ways to use its expanded Roman Cancel system that any Evo highlight reel is full of creative ways out of situations that you've never seen before.

Monster Hunter

Rocket League cracked that for me, crazy ceiling on that game.

Crusader Kings III is gonna crack it eventually…

You should try Brighter Shores.

The original RuneScape developers and owners (i.e. Andrew Gower and his brothers) are back with a new game, at a new company, with an industry shattering $5.99/mo subscription price for all content.

No micro transactions, no pay to win, no outrageous DLC pricing, no bull shit ... just a fun game with many similarities to OSRS but also modernizations, formula improvements, and lessons learned.