I had to look up when Blackrock Mountain was released before I started writing this because I had no idea otherwise when it was I started playing Hearthstone.
BM came out in (wow, great memory I have, hold on…) April of 2015 and later that month the game released on iPhone. I started shortly thereafter.
Wow, that makes close to 6 years, during which time I’ve probably never taken more than a handful of days off at a time, usually playing anywhere from 15 minutes to a couple hours a day.
For me that is far and away the longest consecutive period of time I’ve ever played a game. I can’t think of any other game that has held my interest for anywhere near that time.
I did play the physical version of Magic the Gathering for a longer span of time, several years longer, but being a physical game where I maybe had an actual opportunity to play twice a month, even that doesn’t come close in actual time spent playing.
After all of that time though I think I’m finally starting to get a bit burned out. I do find myself playing both less time and less often lately. I still find the game as fun to play as ever, I just have the urge to play a lot less often.
All of that got me wondering about what games others have spent a ton of time playing.
What Video Game have you played at a regular basis for the longest span of time? Let’s stick to Video games as physical games tend to be ones most people stick with for longer but because of their nature, spend less actual time with.
Thanks for any replies. I’m curious to see what the answers are. Maybe I’ll find my next addiction.
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It’s hard to say exactly since a lot of games don’t track that but I’d guess World of Warcraft is up there for me but not sure how many hours I’ve spent on that. As for the game where I know my gametime I’d say Persona 4 Golden has that crown for me at around 450ish hours I’d have to check my vita to get the exact number but that game is incredible and has more than justified my purchase of a vita
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It’s hard to tell cause I must have finished final fantasy 9 50 times over the course of 15 years,
Also starcraft 2, started playing in 2011, then stopped when hearthstone came out, then after kharazam I got bored and came back to starcraft 2, since then I’ve been back and forth between the two games
Not sure exactly but its between CS/CS:Source(havent played this in years but I did play it exclusively for about 5 years, maybe more), WoW & Hearthstone.
I doubt anything will top WoW.
Civ series and Diablo series, since the very first release of each.
Hearthstone is definitely up there, but if we’re looking at total hours sunk into a game I’d say WoW, the Mass Effect series, Diable I/II and Pokemon have gotten a LOT of my playtime from my early youth through now.
Steam clocks me at 2000 hours in Slay the Spire, and I’ve also spent a lot of time playing it on Switch, so probably that one for me.
Other than that, I’ve spent years playing Dominion, which has a good online implementation.
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Starcraft Broodwar. When it came to custom maps, people were geniuses. Some of the custom map genres have become world popular top titles. While DOTA was based off a Warcraft custom map, SC Broodwar had maps like Storm the Fort, which was a similar idea in the early 2000s. The game has since dropped in popularity, but this game was among my favorites of all time particularly from the custom maps.
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I spent a tragically large portion of my teenage years on WoW lol, I think my /played time on my main char was something like 400 days 
Not proud of that, and I am going to conveniently NOT search out and add the /played time of other chars, lol
These days I kind of casually bounce between hearthstone, SC2 coop, and pokemon go- i’ve played WoW for at least a couple months of most expansions since TBC, but shadowlands hasn’t caught my interest, mostly because of the state of my fave class.
Regardless right NOW I’m playing hearthstone more than anything because warlock has a ton of fun decks. Loving envoy questlock, first time i’ve enjoyed standard since dollmaster questlock rotated!
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romance of the three kingdoms 2 NES
Hearthstone, for sure. Started in April 2014.
However, can understand that you feel a bit burned out latley…
Civ4 I keep returning to. The challenge of it continues to fascinate me on increasing levels of difficulty and different map sizes. Civ6 has apparently overtaken it in terms of quality but I don’t have that one yet (or the gaming hardware for it).
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I played disgaea 2 for over 1500 hours.
Other than that prob civ 5 and civ 6…countless hours.
I’m sure Hearthstone would be it for me. I started towards the end of beta and probably have rarely taken so much as a week off. I probably have played at least 80% of days since I started, usually for at least a couple hours. No other game can really hold my interest THAT long.
Disgaea is boss. Playing the heck out of 5 atm.
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Probably my most played are:
Everquest from 1999-2006 or so, with brief nostalgia forays back to Norrath. Raided from launch until Gates of Discord. Raid really had a different meaning in EQ. Hard to explain, but very time consuming. Most raid instances needed a key and some could take weeks to obtain…for each person…x72 people…and more if you needed to swap raiders out…
I don’t miss it, but it was the first and probably last MMO that sank its hooks into me.
Hearthstone from launch to present–taken a month or two off here and there, but mostly at least a game or two per day. But when the game was newer I’d literally do an arena run to 12 in one sitting and then just start up another. If I had to guess, I have at least 3000 hours on it?
WoW–started just before Burning crusade, raided a bit in BL, quit WotlK, came back during Cata but didn’t raid, quit, raided all of Pandaria and WoD, quit, just coming back now to quest/chill, did no Legion or BfA, which I’m enjoying exploring now (sort of).
Nothing else is even close to those three.
Another one for WoW.
2008-2015 when WoD/Mythic raiding killed my 10 man team, 500+ days on my most played character Druid, and 300+ on my main for Pandaland Paladin, with a couple of others probably approaching 100 days. Despite working 50 hour weeks for most of that time.
Ark : Survival Evolved
8000 hours on official servers.
Been on a break for last 4 months.
Pros: A great concept and amazing graphics if you have a decent video card.
Cons: Huge timesink , the game persists even while you are logged off.
I’d say overall? Maplestory. I’m 27.
I spent every waking moment playing that game from middle school through to the late years of high school.
Second? Probably Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 at about 1200 or so hours.