Kunitsu-Gami. I tried the demo and spent 8 hours on it trying to get everything perfect, which made me realize I should just buy it. It was a total delight. I didn't expect it, never even heard of it honestly, but I can't stop recommending it.

Laser tag.

It's really dropped off as a sport over the last thirty years. I think kids get the same rush from video games these days.

Battletech should be the king of tabletop wargames. But no, everyone just wants to play 40k because of the sunk cost.

DotAge. It's a rogue-like turn-based strategy game where you try to build a village on cursed land, where you have visions of upcoming doom events and the eventual apocalypse. You have to balance stacking resources for growth and basic survival against efforts that will improve your chances of surviving doom events.

The board obviously is different every time. The factors you have to weigh and plan for are just complex enough, and just enough of the future is beyond your sight and control. The gameplay mechanics also change just a bit every time, due to a new mix of buildings and resource gathering methods, as well as new random events that can sometimes have a huge effect on your strategy. You're not just accounting for randomness in your strategy--you have to adjust how you play the game all the time.

Just when you think the game is getting easy, the next chapter drops, you start doing the math, and realize you have overlooked something that may doom your village, depending on whether the RNG punishes you sufficiently. There's definitely a big luck factor, as there is in real life. But you can make your own luck if you see far enough into the future and play well.

It's a very well-made game that can run on a potato, and I'm a little obsessed with it.

For video games, Full Spectrum Warrior.

It's got a unique third person-ish view where the player swaps between different fire teams or special units, and orders them. It looks like a third person shooter but is just a real time ground level tactical game. It's demanding but fun. It's the kind of game that Brothers In Arms, old school Ghost Recon, or Doorkickers players would love. I don't know why nobody really remembers it or why somebody hasn't made a spiritual successor.

Simon the Sorcerer

It always seems to be overshadowed by Monkey Island. Personally I think it's actually better in many ways.

I thought Slice & Dice was going to take Steam by storm but it kinda just came and went. Amazing little roguelike dice battler

Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo. Easily the most fun and competent puzzle game I have ever played. It is especially great with 2 players.

Plasma - a wildly programmable physics game where you can build just about anything in a fairly accessible manner. The devs eventually just made it free because it wasn't getting much notice.

BPM: Bullets Per Minute - at some point everyone thinks 'what if you combined an FPS with a rhythm game so you had to shoot on the beat?' BPM is that, nailed. Others have tried but BPM got it right.

Aotenjo Infinite Hands is like Balatro for mahjong. Strongly recommend it

For tabletop, I loooooove Sentinels of the Multiverse, always hard to find other folks that play it though.

Video game: Remember Me

I have just no capacity to judge what's popular anymore, not sure i ever did.

Cattle Country, a completely unique stardew-esque game set in the wild west. It feels way more in depth and polished than Stardew, and you can be attacked by random wildlife and even outlaws lol

I could name so many tabletop RPGs for this. Unfortunately, since Hasbro has dominated the space like a generational pile of elephant dung for over 2 decades now, and TSR actually did manage to make a few smart marketing decisions before Dragon Dice and the bankruptcy, I guess I can't be too shocked.

So I guess I'll go with a board game. Tsuro - The Game of the Path. It's super-simple to learn and play, can be interesting for kids and adults alike, and it's just a really solid, fun, game. There's even an iOS version. I don't understand why it's a niche game instead of being front-and-center ahead of Monopoly or Clue(do). It's not even prohibitively expensive, honestly - the wholly valid argument against Carcassonne and other niche games. There's no good reason I can think of why Ticket to Ride is more popular than Tsuro.

I mostly play co-op games and I am tired of the "everything is dark, ugly, and evil, and chaos is rampant" with a souls-copy aesthetic. I crave colorful games and fun co-op mechanics.

Nine Parchments is casual, fun, and beautiful. The point IS that there is friendly fire because the challenge is to get the enemies without getting your friends. Played also by up to 4 people on a single screen.

Coridden is very home-made but has cool mechanics of turning into beasts or riding your friends when they turn into animals. Fun isometric rpg-ish game that can be played on a single screen.

Pizza possum. Steal the food and don't get caught. It's casual, chaotic and hilarious. Co-op as well.

Spiritfarer is a great game. Not sure if it's popular or not bc idk what's popular. No killing, very therapeutic if you've lost someone, is a journey about loving and letting go. Co-op allows you to play the cat.

And go play bombsquad with friends, it is the best and my go-to if I have videogame-comfortable guests at home :)

Love you all. Keep being nice people

The Legend of Alan D'ar, it was for me the first co-op rpg I'd ever played. My brother and I couldn't out our controllers down. Sadly all you ever hear about it IF anything is how much people hated it.

star trek online and champions online. they were pretty reasonable for free to play mmo's and the costuming was amazing.

Would chess count?

I mean chess is not not popular by any stretch of the mind, a lot of people around the world are playing it every single day and that won't go away anytime soon, but I'm always surprised to see so much more excitement going on around a new version of This or That video game that people will play for a little while before switching to a newer version than for chess. Despite its apparent simplicity (and lack of visual effects), chess has remained a challenge for the smartest among us, and will keep on being so no matter how much better computers can be playing it.

Me and my girlfriend are big fans of Doomsday Paradise, a rouge like dating sim

Not sure if this fits (because it had its moment and its assets are likely popular) but Jump Ultimate Stars for sure.

It is basically the dream of any Otaku materialized and sadly Shounen Jump hasn't been able to top it yet, the more time it passes the more time I appreciate it 😁

For example I have played with Gon and Killua characters since 2009... But just until now I got to see the 2011 Hunter x Hunter adaptation and oh boy, knowing the characters just improve the experience!

Quake Champions is pretty great, surprised it's not at least a little bigger

For video games, Ostranauts. It's the perfect space survival sim IMO. You wake up on an industrial salvage station and get a ship. Then you fly to derelict ships and scrap them for money and parts. Build up your own ship and travel farther and farther out. It's jank as fuck to learn but once you get it down it's the type of game where you put on music then just go for hours and hours. It's early access and a lot is changing but the core gameplay loop is so addicting already.

For tabletop games, Infinity. It's the best miniatures skirmish game I've ever played. The rules are deep but tight. The number of minis you put on the table is just right to me. List building is the best of any game I ever played. The rules are free. The app is free. The miniatures are the best out of any wargame I've ever played. It's just a shame that people are so locked into Games Workshop that they don't see other games as an option. Like I had a couple friends get hardcore into it but never more than that. And at the height of it's popularity at our store we had one of the best players on the East coast play in a tournament. That was a sight to behold. Like I'm not a tourney player at all for any game. Watching the number 1 east coast player do his thing was the most inspired I ever was to become a tournament player.

Shoot Shoot Mega Pack is extremely underrated imo. It's a really fun 2D shooter +party game, and it only has 13 reviews on steam.

Meinkraft

An indie 3D platformer game from a couple years ago called Hell Pie. You're a low-level demon who gets an angel chained to him, and you can use it to do things like spin him to launch yourself and swing on stuff. If you like classic 3D platformers and toilet humor, it's really very good, and pretty novel.

RS isnt really popular outside millennials groups, although it's declining a lot last few years

For video games, The Touhou series.
Outside of the games They have alot of fangames/Fan Content ,a massive community and a popular Fan Song (Bad Apple).
Also Undertale/Deltarune has some inspiration from Touhou.