Gaming is a great hobby because you don’t need to rely on anyone else for you to do it. You don’t need to wait for your friends to be free so you can play pickleball. You don’t need your live model to clear his schedule so you can do your figure drawing. Sure, you might want your friends to play an online game with you, but you can always play by yourself. 

This is why it’s an enriching activity that so many of us are drawn to. It’s just like reading a book or watching a movie, except that you’re actively making decisions the whole time. You have a say over what your character does, and there are stakes. If you do well, you’ll be rewarded. If you do poorly, you have more of an incentive to keep going. This is how hours and hours can pass without you noticing.