Mine was New Leaf! I got it for Christmas in 2015 with a 3DS and have spent almost 400 hours in my original town on my newer 3DS. Don't know how much it would be if you added the time from both 3DS's. I think it will always be my favourite game ever and the 3DS will always be my favourite console.
Mines was the original GC game. I remember wanting to befriend all of the villagers and catch everything I could find. I spent hours on it and it remains one of my favorite entries!
My first AC was the original GC game. I loved building up my house, collecting furniture and clothing. I remember the one thing I disliked about the original game was I found most of the villagers extremely annoying because they were so rude. I also remember thinking I had an ugly set of villagers in my town. Once I got my house decorated the way I wanted I kinda fell out with the game.
New Leaf wasn't my first AC, but it's the one I invested the most time into for suuuuuuuuuuuure.
I started with New Leaf in 2014. I saw this game was very popular online which is why I got it. Although at first I didn't like Animal Crossing that much at first since I wasn't used to playing social simulation games, I adored it later on as I progressed in the game. I especially love making and scanning designs and paths with QR Codes! I spent so much time playing this game because of its so fun.
The original one, on Gamecube. When I was 10, my sister and I were watching television together and a commercial for Animal Crossing came on. She turned to me and said, "That looks fun. Would you want to play that?" I very enthusiastically said yes. Guess what was waiting for me after school the next day!
20 years later I still have the disc and memory card. You're the best, Sis.
GCN. I was also about 10, and as a result I was terrible at it - I didn’t figure out how to actually fish until Wild World, and ignored house upgrades to buy clothes and then ran out of space to put said clothes. Y’know, standard 10-year-old things. Also, since you could ask if they had favors to do directly, I did that instead of actually talking to my neighbors most of the time and so it took years for the villagers to learn my birthday. In a weird nostalgic way, I kind of miss the fetch errands where Peaches loaned her Pocket Pikachu to Bluebear and Bluebear loaned it to someone else and you have to go to like five different people to get this thing back to its actual owner because people kept loaning something they themselves were borrowing. XD
Wild World was the one I got actually good at, though, and I played it a LOT in middle school. (My preference for portables and City Folk’s ‘Wild World, but with the city added on’ means I never put all that much time into it.) But the one I put the most time in is probably New Leaf - it’s hard to tell because I restarted my first town with the WA update and subsequently bricked my system in a surprise torrential downpour with an inadequately-waterproofed purse, losing my time and any digital-only save data, but between the time I spent on it at launch and the time I spent with Welcome Amiibo, it was significant. And I love New Horizons - apart from City Folk’s lack of changes, I wouldn’t rank any of the games above the others.
Once I got my house decorated the way I wanted I kinda fell out with the game.
