1993, Game of the Year

[Mnementh]

Jumpin said:

I’m not saying Doom shouldn’t win this poll, as Doom was a major cult classic, but some people are drastically inflating its success. Calling it the biggest or most major game of 1993 is inaccurate. It wasn’t even the biggest PC game of the year. I’m guessing people are either misremembering or are misinformed.

The reason I’m posting this is because I’m seeing some people who don’t even like Doom voting on this misinformation.

On PC, both Myst and SimCity were significantly more successful games, selling 6.3 and 4.3 million respectively, the original Doom sold 1.1 million units by 2000, and all versions and ports (including Ultimate Doom) sold 3.5 million. Myst being considered the killer app driving the quick early adoption of CD-Rom, and the best selling PC game of the 1990s. By comparison, the best selling FPS game of the 1990s (and the first mainstream FPS) was 1997’s Goldeneye 007, which sold over 7 million copies on the N64 by 2000 eventually going on to sell over 8 million.

Myst is a strange case. You are right, it was quite successful back in the day, I remember how it was viewed back then, as a transformative game. but the thing is - it had no lasting impact. People that weren't around back then - and even many of these who were - don't know the name Myst, but many know the name Doom. Shows that being successful in it's time isn't the same as having deep cultural impact.

Last edited by Mnementh - on 04 October 2023