The Most Addicting Games Of The Past Decade

World of warcraft for sure.

To this day I have cravings to go back. I played for 7 and a half years. It just isnt what it used to be though.

Definitely WoW. Most addictive mainstream game of all time IMO.

All-around great list, but yeah, WoW. I hate the game now and would never go back (unless it went f2p, sigh), but it definitely ate up more of my time than any game ever. I used to be compelled to login every night at midnight to do my daily quests once they reset. I also spent countless hours working on meaningless achievements and vanity items, something I almost never do in any other game. It's really the only game that I'm ashamed at how many hours I put into it over the years. If I logged in now and checked my time /played, I'd probably need to call a suicide hotline afterwards.

Same here. If I did them at reset(which was 2am central for me) I could enjoy my evenings and not log in until a few hours before raids.

The thing with World of Warcraft, to me, is this: Towards the end, when you've played your classes and have seen the terrain, there isn't really much else to experience. During the end of my time on that game, the best experiences I have had was leading a guild with my friends and leading other players. That's definitely something that was always new, and always gave you something to do.

I added my /played for all my characters over all my servers when I quit the second time to know the depths of what I've done, and to prevent my future self from ever doing it again. It was quite effective. But mostly sad.

Civ V and Skyrim I think I've heard of them.

Skyrim is the only game on this list I would completely disagree with. I played it for about 30 hours and quit. I remember just a couple weeks after it released everyone else on my PS3 friends list had quit the game already too. Skyrim people would put in 40-50 hours, with a small amount hitting 100-200 hours. In WoW, people could easily put in 100-200 DAYS, with a small amount well over 400-500 days at this point.

I finished every quest in skyrim and visited everywhere on the map. I have no intention of ever going back to it.

I don't think the list is just all about time spent, and you have to admit that for a single-player game Skyrim was certainly a doozy.

Between playing once at launch on PS3 and replaying a year later on PC, I have 600 hours on Skyrim. But i've seen plenty of people on Steam with 1000+ hours on Skyrim, although I can't quite imagine how! You're right though it's got nothing on serious MMOs. I know plenty of people still playing FFXI with 800 days /played. X.x

Long hours is due to loading screens.

MMORPGs definitely have the most content and as a result are often the games people have put the most hours into, and since Skyrim is not an MMORPG it can't really be compared to WoW for average hours played. That being said, Skyrim has a tremendous amount of content for an offline, single player game, and I have put in 250 hours myself and can attest to its addictive qualities.

Couldn't disagree with you more. Skyrim was highly overrated, especially the console ports. Most people quit the game within a couple of weeks. I have about 200 days /played in WoW, and Skyrim couldn't keep me for more than 30 hours. As I stated in my original post, there are a very small amount of people who actually did play it a lot (100+ hours), but it's rare.

Your statements that most people quit after a couple weeks and that very few people played it a lot have no value since you cannot even pretend you know how long the 10 million people who have bought skyrim have played for. The experience you and your friends have had is a microscopic fraction everyone's Skyrim experience, and the opposite of mine, since me and everyone I know have put countless hours into it. If you find it overrated awesome, but your presumptuous and unknowable generalizations are only hurting your argument.

Completely disagree. My friends list represents a very generalized perspective of the gaming industry, playing just about everything in existence. Just because you and your friends are all hardcore Skyrim fans is not representative of a general audience whatsoever.

Lol because you guys play lots of video games you speak for 10 million people? Please. Also I didn't say my friends represented anything, only showing that experiences other than yours exist.

It's a small sample of people comprising of casual to hardcore, single player to multiplayer only. A generalization can be made. You and your friends are hardcore elder scrolls fans, and are attemping to make an argument that your hardcore elder scrolls fans like skyrim is comparable to a mainstream list of general players. Not quite the same, my friend.

My friends are hardcore elder scrolls fans? And you know this how? I'm the only one of my friends who's a hardcore elder scrolls fan. my friends just liked Skyrim because it was a great game. Again, you're making statements that are false in an attempt to look right, and spin it how you want, your friends don't represent Skyrims other 10 million players, and your insistence that they do is a logical fallacy of converse fallacy of accident.

"since me and everyone I know have put countless hours into it." Check-mate.

Because we put countless hours into it we are all hardcore elder scrolls fans? Like I said, they put alot of hours into it because it was a great game, for most of my friends it was their first elder scrolls game. Check and mate.

You speak of nothing but fallacies and non-sequiturs. You can deny the checkmate all you want, but that doesn't change facts. Good day to you sir, and better luck next time!

The non-sequiturs and fallacies have come from you friend, I've called you on all of them, and it's plain for all who've observed our joust to see. Good eve, perhaps you'll be the winner next time instead!

I nominate this battle to The People Speak.

You sir have failed, my friend. I have called you out on every fallacy you have posted then you go ahead and say "NO YOU!" Old argument that a 5 year old would attempt. I know the agony of defeat must be burning your soul right now, but there is always new articles being posted. Try again next time!

My up votes and your down votes say otherwise ;)

Yea the truth hurts, the pain is so intense people have to desperately vote me down in an attempt to quell the sheer pain of truth. Numerous others have posted here too agreeing with me and didn't vote me up or down, so I guess they are just lazy. Lol. Only the butthurt crying fanboys voted me down. Doesn't matter really.

Civ V? Who the **** plays that?

Played World of Warcraf off and on since launch as well, and i've been considering turning my account back on recently to check out some new PVE fighting arena they released, I forget the name. I'm at a point where I just go back for expansions and play for 1-2 months but as a series will always love Warcraft. Once I got tired of the MMO I read all the books and that was amazing, made me turn the MMO back on. Whoever was theorizing about a Skyrim-esque Warcraft RPG - that would be insane with the story they could deliver. Still nervous about the movie though

As for Skyrim i've never put more hours on a single player RPG collectively, although New Vegas would be the closest. Be playing more once they release Dragonborn for PC.

Both earn the title "Creator of backlogs" /cry

Glad my WoW account got hacked during my most recent hiatus. I know it's relatively easy to report a hack and have gear/gold restored, but it's been my excuse to never return... Been clean for just over a year now ! =D

Played WoW from launch until the end of WotLK. Kicked the habit and never looked back. I'm amazed I graduated college thanks to that game.

More like "no thanks to that game" XD

And ditto to the whole graduating college thing despite my absolutely debilitating WoW addiction at the time.

P.S- The amount of time required to build that Minecraft world from your screenshot makes me sick to my stomach!!... Hope it's not yours =P

P.S- The amount of time required to build that Minecraft world from your screenshot makes me sick to my stomach!!... Hope it's not yours =P

This is a pretty condensed list for being about the last decade. Where's the Simcity and CoD? What about Oblivion? That was a little more worthy than Skyrim to be on the list. How about TF2? Halo? Starcraft?

That's kind of the point I was trying to make in my previous posts. This is for the past DECADE. Skyrim is certainly a good game, but doesn't deserve to be on this decade long list.

I agree with this, but I feel like this list is more about games that people get addicted to in the "I'll just play one more holy **** the sun where did the last 15 hours go" sense and less in the overall time played sense. By that standard, I can understand excluding games like TF2 (incredibly, Starcraft and Halo both fall outside the decade mark--way to make me feel old, GR).

Not the more recent Halos, and Starcraft II.

MMORPGs can be such an amazing experience, I havnt played much WoW but I've played a handful of others and they really are another world to get lost in. And as for Civ... my god that series is just crack cocaine. Civ 2 has consumed for of my life than any Civ game, tho I would say 5 is the best. Also Heroes of Might and Magic 3 deserves to be mentioned for being one of those just-one-more-turn-oh-****-it's-6-and-I-work-at-8 games

LoL? :/ da fuk needs more dota

I don't see it that way. If you mean getting a beta key it's so easy to get one for free now ever since OCT more so during the winter sale when they gave every user three invites.

As for it being hard to learn, I find that rewarding.

:/ Still stands Da fuk?

just got into League of Legends and I agree, I have hardly picked up anything else since I started playing it.

Yes, I've played most of those games, but I believe a Total War game should be there as well, not even Civ IV was as difficult to put down.

Oh the hours I have lost to Medieval 2 Total War (especially with the Clouds Across Europe mod). Absolutely absorbing games.

Yearh i agree. a shame not even one total war game made it on.

World of Warcraft definitely tops the list. No matter how many times I quit (3 by my count) I always come back.

KOTOR 1 & 2 for me then. I played through both games 6 times each (12 total) over the years to experience every class & alignment combo (lightside/darkside).

Past decade?
First Skyrim sucked. Was a visual treat but I think the long hours everyone logged was due loading screens.
How was Counter Strike Source not listed?
On PS3 most addicting game is BF:BC2
On XBox Halo Series is most addicting.
On PC, it is WoW hands down. I went off the deep end. Too play that game competitively requires time in and outside the game.
Also CS:S still has more people play that stupid Skyrim.

War Craft 3 beats Skyrim.
RE4 beats Skyrim. Multiple play throughs and that Merc mode.
Company of Hero's.
This decade you mentioned on seemed to include the last couple years sans WoW.

Mhmmmm resident evil 4 and company of heroes.

Shit. I'd even put Word with Friends over Skyrim.

I really like Skyrim, but like a lot of the commenters here, I wouldn't put it as one of the most addictive games of the past decade.

I'm usually a person who likes to get most or all of the achievements in a game to make sure I'm getting everything I can out of a game, but the quests/achievement to rebuild the thieves guild did me in, as did many of the other ongoing quests that were too repetitive. I lacked incentive to play once the main story and most side quests were complete and haven't gone back, even for the DLC.

I wonder how many comments were made before mine.

Wow. All this fuss over whether or not a game is or isn't addictive (compulsive need for, habit-forming). Put away your guns and knives kiddies. This was and is an opinion piece, nothing more, nothing less, pure hot air (sorry Jonathan no insult intended). I like Skyrim and Civ V, but my all time favorite game (Civ IV) didn't make the list, and I'm not crying about it. Just remember that one man's cake is another man's poison.

Now that everyone had time to breathe, we did kind of jump all over Jonathan for his Skyrim choice. But with the moniker "last decade" you must admit his choices really only include the past few years minus WoW. That is why I think the fuss is credible.
Leaving out CS:S which is still one of the most played games daily after 8 years should make the list over a game out only 1 year.
He also left out Pokemon series...

Gotta catch 'em all.

Mount and Blade was pretty addictive for its time. San Andreas too. And also, Team Fortress 2 should be on that list....

skyrim is a polished turd, a lifeless world that, once you 'get' it, will never surprise you and will never deliver new thrills. it baffles my mind people still play this. the mods are just some more polish. still a turd

Skyrim is a good game, but doesn't deserve to be on this particular list. I could easily see Skyrim on a list of "most addicting games of the past two years" however.

I don't see where all this Skyrim hate is coming from, I literally spent 4 days after it's release playing NOTHING but "that" game. It''s a gem and will always been right up there in my personal 2012 GOTY, right under Deux Ex: Human Revolution.

No Fallout?
That sucked me in far deeper than Skyrim. There were days where I'd wake up, grab a cup of coffee, intend to play Fallout for a hour or two, then be putting down the controller 16 hours later.

And this happened more than a couple of times...

I see what you're saying. But to me (and a bunch of others I've talked to) Fallout managed to get it's hooks in deeper than Bethesda's other offerings. Certain;y more than Oblivion, which I didn't care for at all.

Wow... a lot of hating on Skyrim. To each his own I guess. At least farmville isnt up there. That **** is just rediculous.

i don't play skyrim very often but when i do i can easily waste 15 hours say what you will about skyrim it can be an addictive experience..... i would have added tell tales walking dead on here if it was up to me whenever i shut it off on my laptop i get that little voice of addiction urging me to just do one more chapter... and then spend the rest of the day thinking about it and wondering whats going to happen next.....

i don't play skyrim very often but when i do i can easily waste 15 hours say what you will about skyrim it can be an addictive experience..... i would have added tell tales walking dead on here if it was up to me whenever i shut it off on my laptop i get that little voice of addiction urging me to just do one more chapter... and then spend the rest of the day thinking about it and wondering whats going to happen next.....

WHOA STOP THE CLOCK....... how dare no one say Diablo 2 man talk about time spent grinding bosses.