6,629 hours in my Steam library

In 13 years that I’ve I had a Steam account, I’ve clocked in 6,629 hours in my Steam library alone. That’s 276 days of non-stop game time.

If you can’t quite tell, I love video games. I thought it’d be fun to share what’s on my gaming shelf. This is just a Steam library, which excludes my Nintendo Switch games (I’m sure Skyrim would easily add up to 500 hours with that), massively multiplayer games, or hundreds of hours I clocked into Overwatch back when it was just released.

I will also weave in links to the relevant pieces I’ve written, in case you want to explore these themes with me further. Without any further ado, here are the top 10 games by playtime:

Here are the hundreds of hours I’ve invested across 10 games in Steam.

Total War: Warhammer III (454, or more like 627 hours)

Let’s add the original Total War: Warhammer (45 hours) and Total War: Warhammer II (128 hours) to the mix, making Total Warhammer series clock in at whopping 627 hours of playtime. That’s like working a full time job, 40 hours a week, for 4 months. And I loved every minute of it.

I enjoy Total War games - a mix of strategic and tactical gameplay always hits my gaming sweet spot, but the Total Warhammer series really speaks to me. You manage your territories and armies in a turn-based strategy, playing on a massive campaign map with hundreds of other factions. When it’s time to fight enemy armies, the game shifts to a real-time strategy, where instead of controlling individual units you control entire regiments. At the moment of writing the game has 24 completely unique races with vastly differing gameplay - the sheer variety of options keeps me coming back.

Total War: Warhammer III. The atmosphere in these games is unmatched.

Massive battles? Check. Fantasy monsters? Check. Dwarfs? Check. It’s my ultimate comfort game: the systems are familiar, but every playthrough feels unique and fresh due to the living nature of the world and powers fighting for world domination.

Total War: Warhammer series is what got me interested in the Warhammer lore, since I knew nothing about the setting before playing the games. The pricing model can be off-putting to a new player (see The Sims 4 vs Total Warhammer), but I definitely got my money worth out of all the base games and DLCs.

CRPGs: Baldur’s Gate 3, The Witcher III, Rogue Trader, Fallout 4

You can see this with 268 hours in Baldur’s Gate 3, 217 hours in The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, 123 hours in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, and 118 hours in Fallout 4.

If you’re surprised about Baldur’s Gate 3 ranking so high, you may have been living under a rock. Larian’s critically acclaimed RPG is one of the best games ever made. I played though the game a few times, with my favorite being the drow necromancer fighting through the dark urge. The goodness in her prevailed. This game has dwarves you can play as (a point in favor), but no origin stories tied to dwarves (a point against).

Baldur’s Gate 3: Meet Melody, a drow necromancer fighting the dark urge within.

I loved Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels ever since I was a kid, and the Witcher games were right up my alley. Slavic folklore, memorable characters, moral dilemmas - it’s an amazing game. Geralt’s good friend - Zoltan - is a dwarf, too, so half a point for The Witcher.

Total Warhammer series got me into Warhammer lore, which made me interested in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. I played through Owlcat’s Pathfinder games, but haven’t finished them. Same here - I started a couple of different playtroughs, but never got to the end. I loved the care put into bringing Warhammer lore to life, and if you want to experience the setting of Warhammer 40,000 in an RPG form - there aren’t other options out there. Points deducted for not having dwarves.

Fallout 4 isn’t my favorite Fallout (that honour is tied between Fallout 2 and Fallout: New Vegas), but it’s the Fallout I played the most. Probably because the gameplay loop is well tuned and is somewhat addictive, similar to what Bethesda did with Skyrim. No dwarves though, barely worth playing.

I love CRPGs, but I think what’s interesting here is that more accessible and cinematic games have much higher playtime then some of my all-time favorites - say, like Torment: Tides of Numenera or Tyranny - both incredible games. I’m a sucker for a good story and engaging characters in a role-playing game, but I’m clearly an even bigger sucker for streamlined systems, accessibility, and modern RPG design trends.

RimWorld (217 hours), Kenshi (140 hours), Stellaris (112 hours)

I love self-directed play. Games where I can set out to do whatever I want, and then got sidetracked mid-objective. Takes me back to playing with LEGOs when I was a kid - build out a set, and then play out the scenario.

It’s not surprising that so much of my playtime is in sandbox story generator games: RimWorld, Kenshi, and Stellaris.

RimWorld: Yet another colony didn’t survive the winter. Funny enough, despite surviving numerous horrors, the skulk of rabid foxes was my undoing.

RimWorld surpassed Dwarf Fortress in accessibility, making the game easier to pick up and play. While certainly less deep, and unfortunately less dwarf-focused than it’s inspiration, the game has an unprecedented ability to create personal, engaging, and often hilarious stories. Just make sure you don’t play optimally, or you’ll ruin the fun (see why we optimize the fun away. For me the game shines when focusing on a small number of colonists as they struggle against a never-ending barrage of obstacles - my RimWorld colonists don’t survive long, but the memories do.

Kenshi’s unique take on disempowerment resonates with me. Gaming is filled with power fantasies, so having an openly hostile experience which grinds you down before you’re able to persevere feels refreshing. A number of titles do this well - Piranha Bytes (makers of Gothic franchise) games immediately come to mind, but Kenshi’s open ended approach makes the game stand out. I’ll cherish my daring escape from The Rebirth mines, followed by a slow and grueling rise to power, culminating in toppling the institution of slavery within the harsh post-apocalyptic world.

Stellaris: If I dont’ have your vote in the Galactic Council, your planet’s getting destroyed.

Stellaris is less of a strategy game, and more of a civilization sim in space. I love how Paradox has been updating the game over the years with meaningful DLCs, as well as significant free-of-charge base game changes. Buying the Galactic Council votes and methodically consolidating all the power in the galaxy under your iron fist just doesn’t get old.

These games are the perfect boxes of LEGOs. When I was a kid, I didn’t much care for following the manual and building what was on the box - I had the most fun letting my imagination run wild, and sandbox games let me do just that.

Elden Ring (197 hours)

Elden Ring took Dark Souls - the game series I love - and improved the combat, made the game world massive, and the lore even more convoluted. George Martin even wrote for the game, instead of finishing Winds of Winter.

I love jumping on as a friendly cooperator to help other players beat the game. It’s the perfect type of brief, anonymous social interactions I enjoy in games. I like playing with other people, but I don’t much care for online commitments, and Elden Ring’s wordless, short term cooperation is perfect for me (see looking for group, afraid of finding one).

Elite Dangerous (149 hours)

Elite Dangerous is the game I bought a HOTAS for: a hands-on throttle and stick. Flying spaceships feels physical and real, exploring the vast universe and dictating your own objectives is fun, spaceships are meticulously designed and ooze personality, and every success feels earned.

Elite Dangerous: Vulture - a light combat ship that served me well in bounty hunting missions.

Switching between trading, mining, dogfighting, and exploring never gets old for me. Sometimes I’d just play an audiobook and run some deliveries or explore far-away systems - it’s a relaxing, tactile experience. I’ve heard Elite Dangerous referred to as space trucking simulator, and that’s a pretty accurate take. I love Elite Dangerous because it helps me find comfort in isolation: I get to be alone in a vast digital world, and it’s a specific mood I sometimes actively seek out (see on feeling of loneliness in games).

I even occasionally played it in VR, which was both hyper-realistic, and gave me a major edge in dogfights - having peripheral vision and being able to quickly turn your head around really helps with awareness.

Final observations

So here’s something that was surprising to me. Other than the fact that I will spend hundreds of hours in a game as long as it includes grumbling, axe-wielding, beer-drinking dwarves, of course. I spend a huge amount of time playing more streamlined, more accessible versions of games. RimWorld, Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate III, The Witcher III, Fallout 4 - all are much more accessible than their predecessors or inspirations, and I put in a significant amount of time. While I Dwarf Fortress had more impact on me than RimWorld, or Fallout 4 is among my least favorite entries in the Fallout series, the ease of play leads to longer playtimes.

Critically, just because I’ve played the game a lot doesn’t mean it’s had the most profound impact on me. A game can leave a lasting impression in a couple of hours, all the while hundreds of hours of Overwatch matches can blend together.