Study Claims to Reveal the Best Year in Gaming History

gamerant.com:

Gamers like to debate about the best year in gaming history. Some point to 1997, which saw the release of landmark titles like Final Fantasy 7 and GoldenEye 007. Others suggest 2007, which saw the seventh generation of consoles really hit their stride with blockbuster exclusives and some of the most critically-acclaimed games of all time. Others still have said that the best year in gaming history is 2011, which was when Bethesda launched The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and Mojang released the wildly successful Minecraft. There is an argument to be made for many years in gaming history, but a new study attempts to narrow things down.

A recent study conducted by Spades Challenge has used user score data from the top 2,000 highest-rated video games on review aggregate site Metacritic to determine the greatest years in gaming history. According to the study, 2003 was the most popular year in gaming, with 199 of the highest-rated user score games releasing that year. Some of the biggest games of 2003 include The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. In terms of user score, the highest-rated titles were games like Fire Emblem, Gothic 2, the aforementioned KOTOR, and Day of Defeat.

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The second-best year in gaming history, according to the study, was 2004, though some may be surprised that it didn't take the top spot when considering all the huge games that were released that year, including Half-Life 2, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, among others. 2004 had 168 of the top-rated games, while 2005