Market research firm The NPD Group is claiming that full game digital downloads surpassed retail box sales in the first six months of 2010.
According to the PC Games Digital Downloads: Analyst Report, 11.2 million games were purchased digitally, compared to the 8.2 million physical units bought at retail stores from January to June. However, NPD says combined sales of both digital and physical PC games for the first half of the year were down 21 percent.
“The overall decline of PC games when combining sales via both digital downloads and physical retail sales is impacted by the expansion of social network gaming as well as the continued expansion of free game options,” said industry analyst Anita Frazier.
Although NPD claims that its surveys are “weighted and projected through a series of steps to represent the Total Adult (18+) and Total Teen (13-17) U.S. population”, GamesIndustry.biz notes that the market research company does not have access to actual sales figures, and that both Steam and Blizzard have confirmed to them that no data has been provided to the analyst.
