It had what really matters: Quality Games.

So vgchartz isn't letting me create paragraphs, huh? Okay...

Editing is crazy, too. Summon the Talon!!

Paragraphs seem to work in RTE but the quick reply doesn't allow you to make them and isn't registering line-breaks.

Very good word of mouth. I dont remember any console having as good word of mouth as PS1 did, but perhaps back then I was more receptive to it since the internet was obviously not the thing its now today. One thing that came along with the word of mouth was the popular perception that it was for a more mature audience than the Nintendo consoles, and speaking from my personal background: Here Sega had no popularity whatsoever, so it was either "Kiddy Nintendo consoles or mature PS1" so it took off very easily.

The other main thing being the fantastic library of quality games.

The exact same reason every PS was a success. Nintendo haters. Quality.

I actually didnt buy a PS1,... but first a PS2 lateron.
My parents got me and my brother a n64 back then (we had nes,snes,n64,gamecube,wii ect) (my bro was a huge nintendo fan).


"What do you think made the PS1 so successfull to beat out the well known and dominant nintendo brand at the time?"

the wow factor.
There was also a mystic to it, it was a more "grown up" system, which apparently was super cool, to us younger kids back then.

I still remember the mind numbing chills, and shocks, we would have sitting down and playing Resident Evil, on the PS1.
Imagine a group of kids that grew up playing around together, on the same street. One of them has a huge 50" tv back then (it was rare back then) in their parents bed room, and we would pull the curtains so it was dark in the room. Put on Resident Evil.... and as a little kid, that game could scare the crap outta us.

Street Fighter Alpha, Tomb Raider, Tekken, Twisted Metal, Ridge Racer...

N64 was cool, but it was mostly just a differnt experiance.
N64 was mostly just the Mario64 + Killer instinct box (starfox, starwars, clayfighter).

They just offered differnt experiances.

I will say, I think the single player experiances, like RE and tombraider, were HUGE for playstation 1.
It was something very differnt, experiance wise, than what you could find on a nintendo system.

*edit:
Also holy crap n64 games were expensive.
I think part of the reason playstation did so well, was just the prices of games were so much lower too.

I was there.. as I saw it.. there where one reason above all.. the possibility to play free games.

When it hit denmark that we could get all the games and only paying for the console.. every friend i had got one.

Nintendo was being anti consumer and anti 3rd party much like the XB1 launch. As the months rolled on, the PS1 grew its momentum and Sony was quite aggressive of course for their first console.

Because Atari, Nintendo, and Sega were stupid.

The Jaguar was at the beginning of Gen V, and was pretty much dead on arrival. Atari had been a declining presence as early as Gen III, but Gen V sealed their fate.

Nintendo stubbornly stuck to cartridges because of faster load times and less piracy. This killed a lot of third-party support.

Sega completely botched the North American launch of the Saturn. It was $100 more than the PS1 and had an unplanned early launch. Third-parties all but ignored the Saturn, especially in the West. Not to mention Sonic Team never got Sonic Xtreme or another flagship Sonic title out.

I'm not acting like the PS1 doesn't have other merits, but it succeeded on the competition being tone-deaf and stupid. That's why the PS4 sold much more than the Xbox One, and far far more than the Wii U.

So many people had mods or work arounds, on the PS2s as well.
I wouldnt be surprised if most people, had only like half "real" games, and rest were ones on burnt dvd's.

I think people forget how expensive n64 cartidges were.
I remember being in the US, in a Toys R Us, walking down the n64 sections and looking at the games, and the price tags.
Those suckers were like 80$+ (back in the 90's).

Sometimes PS1 games would be like half that or less.