I have been an avid gamer since Atari 2600 and IBM PCjr, I have played RPG, shoot-em ups, arcades, stories and FPS.
I had no idea what it was and how to play it, but I opened up my, on sale, US$7.50, new game from a small developer I’d read about named Concerned Ape. Stardew Valley. I have only been playing for 2 years and have 6 different setups i keep going back to for tweaking, and have just started a 7th. The gameplay is straightforward, and oddly addictive. I just added up the hours played on all the games, comes to 1200 hours. Don’t know if this fits your bill, but I have been surprised that it is my go to even with the AAA games like Zelda taking a back seat.
“We need breathing room.” -Adolf Hitler, 1936 on the expansion into the Sudatenland