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.

That's not what is being asked here though. It's what you think was GOTY for 1993. If it was a matter of sales success, then everyone can just google what was the best-selling game of 1993 and put that as their answer. 

Myst and Golden Eye may have sold more, yet Doom is still selling

Myst is a good contender, it was everywhere, even sold in book stores. Riven was so much better though. I couldn't really get into Myst, I played for a couple hours and while interesting, I never went back to it. I wonder what the completion percentage is of Myst, it felt more a novelty at the time than an actual engaging game. Riven the opposite, bought it for the box art alone, loved it start to finish, same with the sequels after.

Tbh despite owning an N64 at the time, I never played GoldenEye. I had already switched to KB+mouse aiming with Quake and couldn't go back to turret aiming. It took me until much much later before I got around to using analog sticks to aim in FPS. I remember trying to play Halo on XBox, it was a disaster lol. Felt like my hands were tied behind my back.

Everything you are saying is 100% accurate.  However, people can vote for whichever game they feel is most appropriate.  Myst and SimCity 2000 both have their selling points, and they are worthy of voting for.  Here are some points that Doom has for it though:

1)  People might simply think Doom is the most fun game in the poll.
2)  More people played Doom than Myst, because the first part of Doom was free through shareware.
3)  Doom popularized the FPS genre, a genre which is gigantic today, one of gaming's biggest and most lucrative genres.  Where would Call of Duty be today without Doom?  On the other hand Adventure games like Myst are not really popular anymore.

So I want to reiterate that people can vote for whatever game they want.  However, there are good reasons why Doom is currently leading in the poll.

Sorry - I’m not a huge FPS fan, and never was, but Doom is more fun than Myst and SimBoredom combined.

In the 90s, everyone was playing the new 3D shooting games. It went from side scrollers to 3D shooters in 1993.

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.

Yeah, I agree that Doom is the most influential game on the list and I would say that Mortal Kombat 2 in the arcades was probably the most popular phenomenon of the year. Not how I voted though.

While I can't dispute the importance of Doom, It's never been for me. Tough decision between Secret of Mana, NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat 2, and Day of the Tentacle for me. I have to go with NBA Jam in this one, but it's very close between that and Day of the Tentacle.

The demo scene was also very active in the 90s. I made some stuff back then as well with friends, never anywhere near as good as this '93 winner

I just found it on my backup drive, tried to run it in a DOS box but just as my own old programs, glitches and other problems abound. I get the start screen then black. But can confirm Second.exe is 1,451,093 bytes, less than your avg picture nowadays.

That music brings back memories :)

Problem with my stuff is, dunno how to control them anymore and have to read the source code now to figure out what keys to press. Not that it helps much, I didn't believe in documentation yet back then haha. Plus I lost a bunch of stuff in HDD failures :/ Oldest I still have is from '95

Honourable mention goes to Starfox.
It's early polygonal graphics may look crude today, but it was cutting edge in 1993, and its epic battles, stellar soundtrack, and classic Nintendo stylings made it as fun as it was technically impressive.