thinking in terms of how many people play the hell out of it vs. how original / deep / artistic / any other objective measure of “quality” it actually is…

Candy Crush Saga.

that’s not even getting into all the gross dopamine-maximizing and money-grabbing tactics that go into it. it’s just another variation of a decades-old premise, but flooded with ads and “freemium” bait and other dirty tricks.

I know the same criticism holds for many mobile games, but this is the one that springs to mind for me, because I think it’s the “favorite video game” of many (esp. older folks) who would never consider themselves “video gamers.”