I only get games now that I 100% want to play. I've wasted too much money over the years on games that I felt I would like, but was not 100% sure about, yet bought anyway.

My Steam wishlist went from like 30-something games to now only 7 over the next couple of years. I'm only planning on getting 2 or 3 games on my Switch 2 that I know are gonna be releasing. Unless there's a big surprise during a general Direct.

I've mostly removed games that demand 50-100 hours or require a second job to play. I've grinded Marathon, which I've greatly enjoyed, but after exploring the BRILLIANT raid map Cryo Archive over the weekend, I've concluded it's not gonna be a game that I can play exclusively. Too much time and grinding are required. You basically spend the week getting loot, then spend the weekend losing most of it to get better loot, and the cycle repeats itself.

I know the kinds of games that I enjoy the most, and I've been better off for it. I've been building up my 4K Blu Ray collection, CD collection, books collection, and began journaling over the past year, and if/when there's a downtime for a game I'm waiting to release, I'll enjoy my other hobbies.

I think in my case its mostly the same thing that G2ThaUNiT said a couple of min ago, i buy games im curious about, that I think i will like, but im not 100% sure, so when the times comes and im free, and  I look at  my backlog to start a new game, im not really feeling interested in starting any of the games i have. 

Coping strategy? I look at my backlog and then just continue an evergreen game instead.

Maybe some day I'll start a new game yet most of the time I don't have the energy at night to learn new systems and sit through cut scenes and tutorial levels / areas. I watched my kid play Crimson Desert last night for a bit, yet it started with boring cut scenes and lot of talking so after 5 minutes I was out lol. Then I played more GT7 instead.

I'm getting too old for fomo, ageing is a good strategy ;)

It doesn't get better.

I usually move to the games I'm more hyped to and sometimes I'm so interested I drop a game midway to go to another and it's hard to come back.

It has been 1 and a half year since I "dropped" Tears of the Kingdom midway and I still haven't come back to it, nothing wrong with the game itself, it was just too long and I was more interested in something else and moved on, since then I started and finished other games, went back to even older games I had dropped before (Kirby on the Switch) but not yet to TotK.

Did the same with Death Stranding 2, twice already actually, both times had about 20 hours playthoughts and something else got in its way and I moved away.

I should be back on it right now, but Yotei had the Legends mode released and I've already put 20 hours on it so... lol.

My main problem is that I play 2 gacha games, they alternate patch updates and it's very frequently updates because of that, for examples, ZZZ will be updated today, but the update is too late so tomorrow after work I should be moving back to it..., it's REALLY hard to keep up with other games since I choose a second gacha to play. I already have close to 1000 hours on ZZZ and over 2500 on Genshin Impact... I can't imagine how many games I could have beaten instead with all this time lol.

Anyway, the games I'm extremely excited about I'll always play until the end, I did not stop for Ragnarok, Astro (it was short tho), Yotei, etc. But those kinds of games are rare.

The backlog keeps increasing massively, but some games are special and for those doesn't matter how many other games are out, I'm choosing them regardless.

So try to focus on just a few of them.

A) I do not have much time anymore.
B) I do not play much anyway.

Step 1: Buy Expedition 33 and Stellar Blade
Step 2: Ignore whatever you are playing and hit those two hard
Step 3: Bliss because those two games are the best titles in years

I feel like the amount of games I want to play now would be perfect for the way/amount of time I played games a few years ago, but due to a combination of other priorities and a mouse arm that just refuses to go away completely I play less now, sometimes because I'm forced to. The last time I was really able to "binge" games was Clair Obscur and WoW Classic almost a year ago. Frankly it's pretty demotivating because it's frustrating to be forced to take a break from a playthrough of a game you're really enjoying and I was hoping to play more this winter and then take a bit of a gaming break in the summer. I think the best thing is probably just to avoid getting stressed about it, maybe prioritise a bit (I made a list of 25 games I really want to play, probably won't get more than 10 done this year but it's good to narrow it down a bit) and enjoy the games that you do get to play, there's always next month or year for the others.

I feel you; my list of "games I want to play when I get around to them" has reached over 60 titles across all my consoles, I could legit stop buying games now and be set for years, yet just in the next few months I wanna pick up Pragmata, 007 First Light, Indiana Jones, FF7 Rebirth, etc.

My strategy is a mix of playing a little bit here and there whenever I get the free time, and just distracting myself with other things whenever I get that overwhelmed feeling.

There are so many great games out there that even if I somehow spent 16 hours every day for the rest of my life only playing games I wouldn't even get remotely close to playing all the greats. Same goes for stuff like films and the thought of never getting to experience so much high quality media is unfortunate but always having the ability to experience something great makes up for it. I just pick something to experience based on my mood really. Like right now I'm in a bit of an FPS mood so am playing through the Doom series for the first time and am having a blast with that.

Thank you all for the words of advice. I think I’ve got a better idea on how to better approach video games moving forward: not with a lens of “Oh! Gimme!!” at every shiny thing I see, but rather, appreciate the aura of mystery which surrounds all these games I’ve only ever heard people talk about.

Lol! Funny that yoy mention those two games: I’ve purchased and played through both of them, and I have to say, you might be onto something. Some of the greatest of this generation, no doubt.