Survey: 47 percent of PC game sales are digital

The data may not be totally reliable and representative, but according to a survey of more than 2000 hardcore PC gamers nearly 47 percent of all PC game purchases are made digitally.

The survey, which was run by the fine fellows over at RockPaperShotgun, was part of an effort to combat the notion that PC game sales are dying – an idea that largely stems from the fact that the sales figures collected by the NPD do not take digital sales such as Steam into account.

The results that came out of the survey were quite impressive in fact, with 93 percent of the 2000 people surveyed saying that they had bought at least one game from a digital store in the last year.

On top of that 71 percent of the 2000 said they had bought more than four games in this manner, with the total of gamers who buy only from retail stores at just 7 percent.

A bit of maths-magic then enabled the conclusion that around 47 percent of all PC game sales were made in digital formats such as from Steam, EAStore, GoodOldGames and Direct2Drive. That means that sales figures presented by groups like the NPD are missing out on nearly half of all PC game sales.

As far as PC games go then it seems that sales are being driven increasingly towards digital storefronts and further away from second-hand sales and retail stores.

How many games do you buy digitally? Let us know in the forums.