A few years ago this may have still been surprising, but nowadays it just makes sense - according to a prominent analyst firm, 92% of PC sales are through digital distribution.
Which makes it fairly ridiculous that most sales charts still only count physical products, despite that side of retail making up less than ten per cent of total sales.
PCR reports that in the UK in 2013 ”£1.18 billion was made from the sale of downloadable mobile, console, PC, and tablet games”, an increase of over 16% on 2012. Compare that to just £1.015 billion from physical copies sold.
Presumably facts like this will convince more companies will follow in NPD Group’s footsteps, and begin to focus on tracking digital sales. The market research company began to do so last year, and continues to try to get big-name publishers on board. ”Full market transparency, including digital is incredibly important to the health of the industry,” said NPD president David Quillman.
