It didn’t change gaming instantly, mind you - a contemporaneous observer could be forgiven for assuming it was still largely business as usual a year or even two years after DOOM‘s release - but it did change it forever. The release of DOOM marks the biggest single sea change in the history of computer gaming. Yet if the precise numbers associated with the game’s success are slippery, the cultural impact of the game is easier to get a grip on. Players of it likely numbered well into the eight digits. But these numbers, impressive as they are in their own right, leave out not only the ever-present reality of piracy but also the free episode of DOOM, which was packaged and distributed in such an unprecedented variety of ways all over the world. The boxed-retail-only DOOM II may have sold a similar quantity it reportedly became the third best-selling boxed computer game of the 1990s. It’s been estimated that id sold 2 to 3 million copies of the shareware episodes of the original DOOM. That “probably” has to stand there because DOOM‘s unusual distribution model makes quantifying its popularity frustratingly difficult. Let me begin today by restating the obvious: DOOM was very, very popular, probably the most popular computer game to date.
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