It was called Yu-Gi-Oh! and it was produced by Toei. I don't think that it did well, possibly because of the changes they made from the original manga. The first series was based around the first seven volumes of the manga. So, seeing this series would not help people to understand the events in Duelist Kingdom and onward. Why does Kaiba act like Yugi defeated him the first time back in Duelist Kingdom when Yugi beats him twice in this series? Why is Tea's flashback to her time working in fast food different here than we saw during Duelist Kingdom? Why is Mio part of the group here, but never appears after this series? Why does Shadi appear early on in this series, yet neither Yugi or Atem recognize him when he appeared after Pegasus' defeat? Why does Atem not recognize the evil spirit version of Bakura in Duelist Kingdom when the last few episodes of this series are spent fighting against him? Why are the events in this series never referred to and always different in Duelist Kingdom.

In fact, there are a lot of contradictions if you try to connect these two series.

This series has no connection to the Duel Monsters series at all.

Yugioh season zero