The Best Year in Gaming is 1998.
The runner up is 2007.
The master thread for all of these contests can be found here.

There were enough "Other" votes for a runoff.  Three years made the cut to the runoff vote.  They are joined by two more years.  First here are the three years that made the cut:

1998
W. LoZ: Ocarina of Time
2. StarCraft
3. Half-Life
4. Metal Gear Solid
5. Resident Evil 2

2001
W. Halo: Combat Evolved
2. GTA III
3. Super Smash Bros. Melee
4. Final Fantasy X
5. Civilization III

2017
W. LoZ: Breath of the Wild
2. Hollow Knight
3. Nier: Automata
4. Super Mario Odyssey
5. Horizon: Zero Dawn

Here are the two additional years in this runoff vote:

1996 
W. Super Mario 64
2. Pokemon R/G/B/Y
3. Resident Evil (tie)
3. Tomb Raider (tie)
5. Civilization II (tie)
5. Command and Conquer: Red Alert (tie)
5. Mario Kart 64 (tie)
5. Super Mario RPG (tie)

2007
W. Super Mario Galaxy
2. Portal
3. Halo 3
4. Bioshock (tie)
4. CoD 4: Modern Warfare (tie)

You can reference the master thread for all of these years here.

Runoff voting for Best Year in Gaming will end on Saturday, January 6 at 11:59 PM, EST.

Years that didn't make the cut:
1986
1991
1994
1997
2000
2011

I voted for 2007

Super Mario Galaxy
Uncharted
CoD 4: Modern Warefare
Bioshock
Mass Effect
Halo 3
Portal
Team Fortress 2
Crysis
God of War II
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Assassin’s Creed
The Witcher
Crackdown

So many franchises either debuted or continued their respective franchises legacy that cannot be ignored. 1998 would be the second best year in gaming imo.

2010 deserves a mention in my book; Mario Galaxy 2, Mass Effect 2, Xenoblade Chronicles, Vanquish, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Halo Reach, Call of Duty Black Ops, Alan Wake, Bioshock 2...

That said I gotta give the all time win to 2007, the amount of GOTY calibre games it squeezed into just 12 months was bonkers.

2007 and 2010 were good years.

My favorite so far is 2023.

Zelda ToTK, FFXVI, Mario RPG remake and Super Mario Bros Wonder.

Easily 2017. I have three games from it in my top 20 - Hollow Knight, Breath of the Wild, and Nier: Automata. And then there's so many other great games from then, Super Mario Odyssey, Sonic Mania, Metroid: Samus Returns, Splatoon 2, Night in the Woods, Little Nightmares, Cuphead... and that's just from games I've played, other highly rated releases include Nioh, Horizon Zero Dawn, What Remains of Edith Finch, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Pyre, Mario + Rabbids, and so many more - and Persona 5 if we include that (2017 outside of Japan). Absolutely insane year.

It was always 1998, but I'm changing to 2017 now.

BotW and Horizon ZD have become two of my favorite games while RE7 on PSVR brought gaming to a whole new level. All 2017 long was packed with great experimental VR games. And then there was Super Mario Odyssey as well, best 3D Mario so far!

Next to RE7 PSVR had

Dirt Rally, full game including weather races in non compromised VR
Mervils a VR adventure, Zelda lite in 3rd person VR
Psychonauts Rhombus of Ruin with amazing use of perspective changes
Statik brilliant puzzle game in a Portal aesthetic
Polybius 120fps psychedelic shooter making the OLED screen sing
Farpoint where just seeing my own shadow in the game was mindblowing
Star Trek Bridge Crew, a childhood dream come true and fun multiplayer
Arizona Sunshine, also supported the AIM controller
Cavernous Wastes, procedural Descent in VR, very addictive
Fantastic Contraption, better than Ultrahand building!
Superhot VR, be inside the Matrix!
Dino Frontier, short but so full of charm
The Lost Bear, cute 2D platformer while sitting in a theater that changes based on the action
Manifest 99, short story that left an impression
The Solus Project, amazing exploration, wish this would come to PSVR2
Dreamworks Voltron VR Chronicles, be part of the animation, wish it was longer
Light Tracer, excellent 3rd person puzzle platformer
Gran Turismo Sport, just time trials basically but already very good, GT7 has the whole game in VR
Skyrim, I spend 170 hours in VR in Skyrim, some of which just looking up at the stars while listening to music, so relaxing
Doom VFR, flawed yet awesome at the same time


How did I have time to play that all... Some I played later, like Prey, Nex Machina, What remains of Edith Finch and Cuphead.
2017 was stacked.

Nothing beats the early 2000s. So it is 2001 for me brothers.

Hmmm it's tricky as most years have similar spread of a few awesome games, a few good ones, and many I just don't care about or didn't really like. If I had to pick it'd maybe be 1996. The start of 3D games really taking off, but also the 16-bit sprite era (which is typically my favorite) was sort of on its swan song and had pretty much been perfected at this point. Year had a nice blend of the two. 

Super Mario 64
Super Mario RPG
Mario Kart 64
Wave Race
Pilot Wings
Resident Evil
Pokemon Red/Blue

maybe I'm a bit biased though as I was pretty much the perfect age for these kind of games during this year, being around 10 years old at the time :P.

2011 takes a close second for me, with Gears 3, Minecraft (alpha), Skyrim, Dark Souls, Portal 2, Batman Arkham City.

And then 2012 right after is pretty great just from Borderlands 2, Black Ops 2, and Far Cry 3 alone..

Based on the top 5 popular games mentioned, 2017.
If 1998 included Xenogears, Parasite Eve, and Suikoden 2, it would be that year by far.

2017 and 2007.

Mario Galaxy, Bioshock, the OG Modern Warfare, Portal, Team Fortress 2, Halo 3, Metroid Prime 3, Crysis 1, Mass Effect 1, Assassin's Creed 1, Rock Band, etc. 2007 was easily the most exciting year for gaming of the 21st century, with so much innovation and great new series.

2017 is the best year in overall quality.