For me it was Terraria, Satisfactory, Tetris Effect Master Mode, Minecraft with Mekanism mod & CSGO / CS2 (almost 2000 hours in CS alone).
Edit: There are so many answers that I might only reply if I have something interesting to say. I will read all of your answers though. 🙂
Edit 2: It has become too much for me and I have to disable notifications. Thank you for the massive response and please continue to discuss with everyone here. ❤️ 🫡
Maybe it is a good thing that Activision ruined blizzard, if wow was consuming so much of your life. I lost interest in Satisfactory when there was nothing cool to unlock anymore. And I think Minecraft remains so popular because it is the most modded game in history (I think). I am in my early 30s and only play single player modded. Tech mods can make Minecraft incredibly complex, but even without mods it is crazy what people have built in that game (like a working computer and pokemon red, the whole game, just with Redstone and command blocks).
You’re right, the modding community is probably why Minecraft continues to be so popular. Without mods, Minecraft is kind of boring. At least, in my opinion.
Minecraft’s core gameplay sucks, it is only the genius and freedom of the general design coupled with mod support that sustains it.
I have played countless hours of minecraft but these days I don’t see the point when I can play Vintage Story or Luanti.
The engines of both games are far more capable than java minecraft.