I really love single-player games.
There is something very satisfying about playing through a game that has a narrative--a complete sequence of beginning, middle, and end. So many games these days are built to be never-ending experiences to be played with friends, and that's fine--but those games are not the ones I tend to spend the most time with. I really like that feeling of working toward a conclusion.
Multiplayer games have tons of advantages, of course, in that they're inherently social experiences. It's sometimes more convenient to socialize with friends playing games than any other method. I live in a very rural, isolated area where it's not convenient to hang out with friends in person. Playing games together online is a nice way to hang out and make small talk, perhaps while shooting aliens or hurling magic spells. That crucial aspect certainly can't be ignored and it's definitely something I enjoy, but like with any social interaction, it's an activity after which I need significant decompression.
When asked about what players find valuable or exciting about single-player games, I think a lot of people would cite "immersion" as a primary reason. I'm not sure that's the case for me. I do enjoy the feeling of being drawn into a narrative or into a really fully-realized world, but if that was really my motivating factor, I think I would play games very differently than I do. There's no "true" or "correct" way to play video games, but I certainly don't take a lot of steps to minimize distractions. I don't wear headphones or play horror games in a darkened room, for instance. In fact, I frequently play games while watching Netflix or, most often, while my girlfriend is playing a game simultaneously. I don't mind it. It's nice to have multiple things to focus on.
For me, it's not about immersion. Single-player games have a lot of advantages that don't have a lot to do with that aspect in particular. I think a big part of what I enjoy about them has to do with pacing. I can proceed as quickly or as slowly as I like. In a multiplayer game, your pace is naturally dictated by who you're playing with. Maybe you're playing with someone more experienced than you in a certain dungeon encounter, for instance, and they tend to rush along. As a result, you don't get to experience it the way you want to. A good example would be Final Fantasy XIV, which features lengthy cut scenes before and after boss encounters in dungeons. Because the majority of the player base has seen this content already, most will expect you to skip it--and even if you don't, you're left behind and don't get to participate in the fight. A less extreme example is in Destiny 2, which I've been playing recently, since players rush through Strikes extremely quickly, leaving me frantically trying to catch up.
I don't always play games exhaustively. It really depends on the type of game it is and how I feel about it. In Horizon Zero Dawn, I really took my time and explored every nook and cranny of that world. I found tons of ancient artifacts and hidden treasures. I even took the time to get every trophy in the game. Had this been a cooperative experience, I imagine I would have approached it a lot differently and the game would have suffered as a result. Of course, had the game been designed with that approach in mind, the game itself would have been significantly more shallow to account for catering to every player's experience. It's arguable whether or not an open-world RPG of that nature could really accommodate multiple players and still feel as engaging and narratively sound.
One example of a multiplayer game that still exhaustively caters to narrative and doesn't sacrifice pacing is Divinity: Original Sin. Its helpful in its case that it is designed to be played primarily by two people cooperatively. What's really fascinating about it is that these two characters are entirely separate and capable of interacting with NPCs with complex dialogue choices all their own. Even better is that the two characters can even interact with each other, which has effects on how their individual personalities develop. This is probably the most fascinating example I can think of in which an inherently multiplayer game feels as narratively strong and deep as any single-player RPG. But I think it does require patience on the part of the two players, since it takes countless hours to play through the entire game, and that there is significant dialogue and lengthy combat encounters. I was fortunate enough to experience this game with a friend and felt strongly it encapsulated the kind of multiplayer experience I wish there was more of.
A multiplayer game isn't automatically a shallow one, even when it's cooperative. I think what I really prefer in a good multiplayer game is that it functions pretty well even when played alone. Divinity: Original Sin is still great as a single-player experience and is only enriched by playing cooperatively. Unfortunately, it seems games built to be multi-player experiences as a general rule diminish the quality of the single-player experience I'm personally looking for. I love Super Smash Bros. for instance, but because I tend not to find strictly multi-player games engaging, it's not a game I end up playing very often. If more fun single-player content existed within that framework (other than just battling the CPU), I would end up playing it much more often and still throw in the occasional online match. I'm among a significant minority in that I find story modes in fighting games more interesting than the traditional versus modes.
There has been much doom and gloom over the years about how the tradition of single-player video games is going away and that major companies will eventually focus on putting out primarily multi-player content. At times, it doesn't seem all that far-fetched a fear, but it's hard to deny that the past few years have been packed with tons of great AAA single-player releases, even if they may feature ancillary multi-player modes. I have no concerns that single-player experiences are going away, no matter how many games like Overwatch, Apex Legends, and Fortnite come to the forefront as mega-popular cash cows. There'll always be developers like Ubisoft, Naughty Dog, Square-Enix, and From Software that produce well-received and popular games that serve as primarily single-player experiences.
And hey, if I'm wrong and single-player games do become a rarity, I've got a pretty massive backlog of them to get through.
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