100 euro's to grab a ticket to your favorite hangout place only to find a ghost town and a couple of other guests that decided they where idiots too to end with the girl you never liked " you are over 18 right ? "
of course the 2000's where garbage with all the shit going on before it even was 2000. Epic pc failures, end of the world we where lucky enough to have found some redemption halfway through that decade and that resulted in some very fine games

1# 90-99, not even debatable for me.
2# 2000-2009
3# 2010-2019

1980-1989 Since I was born in 86, I don't know much about this decade unfortunately and it'd be wrong to include it to my personal ranking.

Answering the topic directly : 2010-2019 because most games I play and enjoy most were released in that decade.

If the question is : What is the best time to play games?, my answer is now. 35+ years of games to choose from combined with modern hardware advances. (Example - I bought a PC in 2001 with 512 MB total memory).

I am aware of the Ubisoftification of the gaming industry, and agree that it's bad, borderline evil, and avoid those elements as much as possible. However, I try to balance concern over factors I can't control with the joy of play.

(I try to use "ification" as a word suffix as much as possible. Increases my pretense rating.)

1990-1999 : Arguably the height of creativity for video games, setting up standards for many genres we know today. There was a lot of great pixel art (it can be hit or miss with modern indies). This was also a time where there was shift to 3D games, with a lot of experimentation done during that time. Sadly, this also marked a decline in 2D games and some 3D games didn't age well.

2000-2009 : There was sharp upgrade in terms of graphics and physics. There was also some improvement in control schemes, and user interfaces. Internet connection becoming standard consoles during the later part of that decade was both a blessing and a curse.

Fighting games rank among my favorite genre. The 2D variety was mostly dead after the 90s, but the release of Street Figther 4 in 2008 lead its resurgence.

2010-2019 : I lost interest in AAA/mainstream games by this time. Further improvement were made on graphics, but something about them left me feeling cold.

Indies were filling underserved niches and more willing to take risks that was lacking in AAA games. Over time, indies started improving in quality and started appearing on consoles as well (ironically, I started playing on PC more). Digitial distribution have offered games that were long out of print and at big discounts.

1980-1989
1990-1999

To be more precise, between 1986 and 1996.

Everytime you would go to the arcade there would be something new and exciting. Sega Superscalers, the surge of beatemups and fighting games, simulators, the beginning of the 3D era... but also, IMO, the peak of pinball machine designs.