NPD Group – 90% of Paid Game Purchases Were Not Digital in Q3

After waves of news trumpeting the growing power of digital game sales in Q4 2009, NPD group reported that 90% of Q3 console game purchases were physical in Q3 2009.

Additionally, 79% of games for portable, PC/Mac, and mobile were physical.

NPD analyst Anita Frazier – “While physical retail product remains the driving force behind industry sales, the role of digital distribution in the games ecosystem continues to climb. Publishers and retailers must keep an eye on the current state of the marketplace and must map ahead for future strategies.”

http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_100112.html

DGSpy’s Take

We find these numbers to be a bit skewed due to the fact that many major digital distribution vendors like Steam and Direct2Drive do not report sales.  However, the numbers do show how much growth potential there is in the digital market in the years to come.

NPD estimates that retail console sales will top out around $20 billion for 2009.  That’s a lot of money to shift to digital.  We are waiting on PC retail sales numbers from NPD.