Really hard to narrow it down, but I think this would be it:

1. Elden Ring. Before the DLC this would’ve been a toss up for where on the list to put it, but SotE made me confidently place it as my favourite game of all time. I’ll avoid any other Souls games in this list for the sake of diversity but Dark Souls 1 & 3 and Sekiro were all in contention for first place before the DLC. They’d make up spots 2-4 on my list, but I’ll omit them for this one. Elden Ring renewed my love of video games, at a time where I was getting a bit burnt out from playing them. When the DLC came out I played it day one, which I never do for anything, and it completely blew me away, even more so than the base game. The world design of SotE is incredible, the views are breathtaking, and the bosses are the best in the whole series. I cannot fully express just how much I love this game when you take into account the DLC. I’m not sure anything will ever take its place on the throne, but then again I would’ve said the same of Skyrim before I played any Souls games, so only time will tell.
2. Skyrim. Probably a boring or predictable choice, but with over 5k hours it’s kinda hard to not include it. I’d probably add Oblivion immediately after this one, but again, I want to make the list interesting so I’ll avoid it here. Skyrim also helped me through the darkest point in my life, so I’ll always hold the game close to my heart, even if new games come along to displace it on my list. I’ve spent so much time modding this game, and it’s one of the things that first brought me and my wife together when we started dating. It might not be my top spot anymore, but it definitely had the biggest impact on my life.
3. Hitman: World of Assassination. This spot was hard to fill honestly. When I think of my favourite games, I usually just think of the Souls series and Skyrim/Oblivion. There’s lots more games I love, but the top spots are all well above the rest. It’s kind of like movies. I have four movies I absolutely adore, and they’re on the highest pedestal. There’s lots more movies I love too, but they don’t compare. Ask me for my top four, that’s an easy answer. Top five? Near impossible. Same deal here, so I just went with playtime and Hitman is my highest remaining game at around 1500 ish hours. It feels weird to call it my third favourite game ever (or I guess seventh because of the other games I’m omitting from this list but you get the point), but so does any other game I considered for here, so I’ll include some honourable mentions below. But back to this game, I feel Hitman is the perfect game for what it is. It can be serious for sure, you’re a hitman taking on contracts, but it can also be completely ridiculous too. One minute you’re tinkering with a race car to make it violently explode on the track to kill your target without anyone suspecting foul play, the next minute you’re dressed as a flamingo exiting the mission by literally flapping your wings and flying from a helipad. 47’s permanent seriousness in the most ludicrous scenarios is peak comedy honestly. Going to a high society Parisian fashion show dressed as a children’s clown and punching out the CEO is a totally normal thing you can do in this game, it’s amazing. And if you don’t like that vibe, you can be a total badass and do a full blown shootout, or a stealthy assassin and eliminate your targets from the shadows with none the wiser. It’s the ultimate hitman/assassin sandbox game.

Honourable mentions: Portal 1 & 2, Pokémon SoulSilver, Hollow Knight, Dishonored, Red Dead Redemption 1 & 2, Batman Arkham Asylum and City, Inside, Gunpoint, any Forza game before the most recent one (haven’t played it), all the Bungie Halo games, and many more. I just love video games I think.

• Left 4 Dead 2 - for the awesome vs teamplay
• The Last of Us (remake) 1+2 - stunningly gorgeous, emotional heavy hitter
• Disco Elysium - art, literature, as a game

edit: I forgot Guitar Hero / Clone Hero was a game not a 'standard hobby', I play e-drums on that daily still..

• Diablo II
• Chrono Trigger
• Halo 3

I don't get to play games much nowadays but I was a rank 50 lone wolf back in the day. Good times.

Elden Ring, Dwarf Fortress, and Disco Elysium.

Descent for the movement.

Unreal tournament for getting ten PC's on a token ring for PvP lan.

Warcraft 2 because it's rad and a pirated copy got me a job at the trading card shop.

Control, the horizon games and stardew valley.

1. Jagged Alliance 2
2. Unreal Tournament
3. Fistful of Frags

1. Mafia 1 from 2002, that game really shaped my taste in games when I was a kid
2. Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Essentially a perfect video game from start to finish IMO.
3. Alan Wake 1 or 2, genuinely hard to pick one.

Street Fighter II for getting me into fighting games. While I don't play that version anymore it is a favorite because of how much I did play it and later fighting games.

Valheim - hundreds of hours of enjoyment from the first moment I was dropped into the world by a giant crow. So much fun time with friends, building stuff, and just exploring. Such a well done game with fantastic lighting, sound, and things to do. Only long tine gripe is fighting on slopes!

Helldivers 2 - yeah, another more recent game but it is also just the exact thing I am looking for in a mutiplayer game with friends. Nearly everything is viable in most difficulties, the game has mechanics for accidental team kills, the setting evolves, but in a way that encourages participation in scheduled events without forcing it, and the devs have listened when the player base pushes back on changes that don't mesh with the tone of the game.

Enjoyed a lot of other games too, but those are ones that hit specific things that I love and enjoyable to replay over and over and over and over...

1. Jump Ultimate Stars, this is the dream game for any Otaku, the fact that we can still play it in 2025 thanks to custom servers is a blessing.

2. God Of War 2018, I was having a bad streak gaming related due to personal and work life, but when this game was released I got it immediately, something that I rarely do (patient gamer gang), anyway, this game kept me awake late nights, I know this is not something that one should brag about, but I was enjoying it completely thus the nights felt that happened too quickly.

3. Toy Story 2, this game will never age for me, I honestly don't know if it should deserve this spot, but if there is a game that I have replayed the most in my life, this would be it, the platform mechanics and graphics are top notch for me (and hey, PS1 graphics are making a comeback, so no shame at all with that style).

Maybe another game deserves that last spot, but those 3 games were the 1st ones that came to my mind.

Honorable mentions:

Mario Kart DS

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy

Hotel Dusk & The Last Window (can you guess my favorite console by this point?)

Pokémon Soul Silver

TWEWY

Time Hollow

All the other God of War games (even Ascension)

Batman Arkham saga (even Origins)

The Witcher 3

Xenoblade

And a bunch others that would make this list absurdly big, which is not the main point of this post.

• Halo 2
• TLoZ:OoT
• Half Life

I can't deny that nostalgia has to do with the first two fossils in the list, though I still maintain that I like them more than their latest counterparts in their franchises.
Not Half Life though: it was ~15 years old when I first played it, no nostalgia there.

Still, between the many games I would gladly build a monument to, those are games that I can play beginning to end without getting bored, annoyed or burnt out (as long as you allow me to use the Ship Of Harkinian randomizer for Z:OoT, otherwise replace that game with Perfect Dark ig).

The Last Of Us part 1 and 2 and the Witcher 3

3 is really tough, but I'll say:

1. Hollow Knight
2. Noita
3. Super Metroid

Other GOATs of mine are already mentioned by others. Y'all have impeccable taste

• Link to the Past
• Super Mario Bros 3
• GTA 4

I took into account the impact at the time of release as well as the timelessness of the games.

Really hard to have any real favorite. But the games I've played the most in my life:

Super Mario Bros (NES)

Diablo Franchise

Destiny 2

Going to have to go with the three that had the biggest impact on me.

1: Doom / Doom 2. In addition to being two of the most influential and important FPS games of all time, they got me into modding, programming, the internet, 3D graphics, shaping my entire future career path.

2: Kerbal space program. No moment in all of gaming had me leap out of my chair and whoop the way landing in the Mun for the first time did. Now that I understand orbital mechanics, I get annoyed at almost all depictions of space flight in movies.

3: Factorio. Got to this one late, on Switch about 6 months ago. I can't think of any game which has rewired my brain as much. As a programmer, I come away from each play through with entire new methods of solving problems at work. May be the single most in depth and addictive game I've ever played.

Riven, Shadow of the Colossus, and Guilty Gear Strive.

(in no particular order)

1. Skullgirls - Simply the best fighting game ever made. There's so much depth in a comparatively small roster that I could basically never get bored or see every viable strategy in it.
2. Baldur's Gate 3 - Tried and true RPG mechanics combined with the best version yet of Larian's engine that encourages free form problem solving. And on top of that, they managed best in class presentation in NPC dialogue and had some of the best writing in the genre. This will be a tough act to follow, especially since I don't think their last two Original Sin RPG systems were anywhere near as good as D&D 5e.
3. Elden Ring - It's been a great couple of years for two of my favorite games of all time to come out within a year and a half of each other, but this is another one of those games where there's just so much to see and so many ways to solve the problem in front of you. Pattern recognition for where to find your next reward is up to you; your next goal is up to you; how you conquer the bad guy in front of you is up to you.

All three of these games just respect your intelligence and are composed of systems deep enough to give you countless ways to solve their challenges.

Morrowind - the first game that let me leave the path. It completely changed RPGs for me, and I loved it.

Solasta - this game captured the D&D feeling like no other game has. My wife and I have spent hundreds of hours playing this together.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard - this game touched me emotionally, more than any game before it. The whole 3rd act is an emotional rollercoaster. Plus it has one of my favorite action sequences ever, in The Siege of Weisshaupt.

Minecraft Borderlands 2 Bioshock

honourable mention for Zelda on N64

but the top 3 are based on replayability and just how easy it is to spend time playing them

1. World of Warcraft
2. TES V: Skyrim
3. Minecraft

• Starcraft II
• Mount & Blade: Warband
• Heroes of Might & Magic III

Honorable mentions

• Anno 1404
• Far Cry 2
• Witcher 3
• Tropico 4
• Factorio

• Oldschool RuneScape
• Factorio
• Baldur's gate 3

1. Cyberpunk 2077, just by hours played and number of replays.

2. The Horizon games. I just adore the world and Aloy.

3. Great Gianna Sisters for hours played and the music.

I also loved the Portal games, they might be a contender for third place.

1. Skyrim
2. Minecraft
3. Destiny 2