Voting in this poll for the first time. Decided to go with 1996 based on the games listed.
Me: 1996 will be popular. *votes* *sees vote counts* D’oh! I’m showing my age here…

I suppose of the remaining years I'll have to go with 2017, since four of the top five games listed in the OP are in my all-time top 50. BotW is still massively overrated, though it's still great, and the year overall just has a huge number of excellent games.

I'm sticking with 2017. PSVR made me feel like I was back in the late 90s, 1998 vibes of excitement. Next to full filling the dreams of VR from the late 90's, 2017 also has the flat games I could only dream off in 1998, BotW, Mario Odyssey, Horizon ZD, GT Sport.

2017 resonates more with me currently than 1998 probably also because I'm not really into adventure games anymore, (Grim Fandango is still awesome!) and I couldn't get into BG3, tried for over 20 hours, just meh. Which kinda tarnished my memories of Baldur's Gate and I certainly feel even less like playing that again now. RTS also a genre I no onger play / enjoy, unless it's just about building. Black Mesa I started, great hit of nostalgia, but I rather play RE4 and RE8 in VR nowadays. VR really raised gaming to the next level and it's still in its infancy. Hence 2017, the year with the explosion of experimental PSVR and Quest titles is now my favorite.

Of the ones on the list, I'd say 2007. Halo 3, Mario Galaxy, and BioShock were all amazing generation-defining games to me, with the latter two being my favorite games of that generation.

But overall, I'd say 1991. The SNES released in the U.S., and games like Super Mario World, Final Fantasy IV, F-Zero, Super Ghouls & Ghosts and Gradius III were released that year alongside or in the first several months afterward. The Genesis had Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage, Turrican, and Toejam & Earl. The aging NES was still getting solid titles like Battletoads, Metal Storm, Power Blade, and Ninja Gaiden III. And Street Fighter II was lighting up the arcades in what would be among the last few boom years for arcades in the U.S. before they started to decline in the latter half of the decade.

The 90s were probably my favorite decade for video games, and 1991 was to me the best year of that decade.

I voted for 2007 but would not be upset at all if 1998 does end up winning. Both being historical years.

I remember 1998 was the single greatest year in gaming for me until 2007 surpassed it and gets my vote for greatest year here (2017 was also amazing though).

Bioshock, Super Mario Galaxy, God of War 2, Picross DS, CoD4 and Portal would be enough for me. But the birth of Assassin’s Creed and Uncharted along with Halo 3, Prime 3. Super Paper Mario, No More Heroes, Crysis; Wii Fit was a thing for some people and even the music games were still fun that year. The only thing that brought it down was DS Zelda being a bust but 2007 remained the best year in gaming until last year finally surpassed it for me (2023 was just bananas).

I don't think any of my top 10 favorite games of all-time released on any of these poll option years, lol. Went with 2007 because I think it has a game ranked the highest on my top 50, Halo 3.

Official voting is over.  The Best Year in Gaming is 1998 and the runner up is 2007. 

This is the last thread that I plan on doing in this series.  It's been a lot of fun looking back and discussing this with all of you.