Myst is the 1993 puzzle-adventure game that became the best-selling PC game of its era before The Sims surpassed it.
Cyan Worlds developed Myst, which was released on the Macintosh in September 1993. Players explored a mysterious island and several linked Ages, solving environmental puzzles while uncovering fragments of a larger story. Its pre-rendered environments, atmospheric sound, and limited direct action gave it a distinctive style.
The game helped demonstrate the appeal of CD-ROM software. Its large disc-based presentation supported detailed images, music, and video that were difficult to provide on floppy disks. Myst remained a major commercial success for years and was widely reported as the best-selling PC game until The Sims overtook it in 2002.
Myst is sometimes confused with Riven, its 1997 sequel, or The 7th Guest, another prominent CD-ROM puzzle game. Unlike action-heavy games such as Doom, Myst centered on exploration, observation, and logic puzzles.