Microsoft also made a big push at this time for preinstalled Windows to be considered the baseline configuration instead of treating it as an optional upsell. It probably also didn't hurt that 3.1 was when Windows was seen as having properly matured (cf. Vista vs. 7). Basically, the 3.1 era was when Windows went from being a novelty/luxury to being everywhere practically overnight.
Works 2 was released for Windows a year earlier, but I think the 3 release was what really shone. IIRC, that was the version I had bundled with our home PC:
