According to an NPD study entitled PC Games Digital Downloads: Analyst Report, the first six months of 2010 saw a significant uptick in PC digital downloads, surpassing that of retail by a fair margin. Throughout the course of January to June 2010, NPD reports that 11.2 million PC titles were purchased digitally online, compared to 8.2 million at retail channels.

NPD attributed the shift to a “higher average selling price at retail.” With the recent influx of deals across all digital distribution services – especially Valve’s Steam – this comes as little surprise.

Despite increased momentum on the digital front, however, the PC market as  a whole still took a decline during the aforementioned timeframe, as NPD reports that combined sales of PC games were down 21 percent. Analysts are pinning the blame on the increased popularity of social network gaming through Facebook and similar services.

For a breakdown of the top five digital retailers ranked by unit share and the methodology involved, hit the jump.

Top 5 Frontline Digital Retailers –Jan.-June 2010 (based on unit % share)
1. Steamgames.com
2. Direct2drive.com
3. EA.com
4. Worldofwarcraft.com
5. Blizzard.com

Top 5 Casual Digital Retailers – Jan.-June 2010 (based on unit % share)
1. Bigfishgames.com
2. Gamehouse.com
3. iWin.com
4. Pogo.com
5. Wildtangent.com

Methodology:
Information contained in this press release sources from two of The NPD Group’s ongoing consumer services covering the games industry:

– Games Acquisition Monitor
The NPD Group’s Games Acquisition Monitor is a quarterly tracker which measures both digital and physical forms of games acquisition activity, volume, awareness and usage of retailers and services, as well as other technology and entertainment activities that could influence game acquisition trends. It is based on online survey responses from over 8,000 members of NPD’s online consumer panel. Data is weighted and projected to be representative of the U.S. population ages 2 and older.

– NPD Consumer Tracker
NPD collects data on PC game purchases via its weekly video games consumer survey. Each week, over 180,000 individuals are selected from the NPD online consumer panel to participate in one of four weekly studies. The responding sample is demographically weighted and projected through a series of steps to represent the Total Adult (18+) and Total Teen (13-17) U.S. population. Respondents to the survey report whether in the past week they purchased a PC game on a disc or downloaded the game from a website directly to their computers.

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