NPD: PC Games Retail and Digital Sales Reach Parity

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Some anecdotal evidence – I buy all my PC games through Steam. If it’s not on Steam, it might as well not exist. I don’t remember the last time I bought a PC game in a box (actually, I do, it was last year’s Silent Hunter 5). At any rate, I’ve gone full digital with my PC game buying, and a lot of folks are joining me as the retail analysts at NPD group report that digital sales of PC games have matched boxed real-life retail sales.

NPD reports that in 2009, 23.5 million PC games were sold in real-life stores, while just 21.3 million digital PC games were sold. This is about as close as you can get, and with the continued growth of the digital space, you’ve got to expect that this year will see digital sales pass retail sales. The fact that Steam is now on Macs doesn’t hurt, either.

What’s interesting is how little digital sales make though. Despite having complete parity, NPD reports that digital sales only made up 36% of total sales dollars. Is that because of all the great Steam sales?

NPD also released the top five digital distribution platforms for PC games:

1. Steam
2. Direct2Drive
3. Blizzard.com
4. EA.com
5. Worldofwarcraft.com

No shockers, although I would of liked to see GoG.com make the list – a small site that sells old-school PC games from yesteryear, usually for under $10.

Do you prefer to purchase your games digitally, or in real life? Sound off in the comments.