With digital sales ever increasing we can't really be judging games based on the physical sales anymore. I have seen rough digital estimates tossed around for a few years now but the truth is digital sales are on a game by game basis. We can't really guess how much % a game is actually selling digitally when its so different from title to title.

What can we do about this? should vgchartz add a digital estimate in brackets next to the physical sales so we can get a better idea of how successful a game actually is?

The reason made this thread is because I get the feeling now that people see the physical sales are low and instantly label the game a "flop" or a "failure" (I'm even guilty of this myself).

If a game doesn't do enough to justify it's costs, it's a flop. That is true for everyone, small indie game ignored or overbudgeted AAA game that sold 5 million copies when it should have sold 7.

I think when people are calling something a flop they will consider possible digital sales. At least I do. I mean the digital sales of the Wii U consoles must be as bad as the physical ones.

The difference in digital/retail ratio between two games isn't that high (I would guess 25% between extremes on the same platform), so if a game doesn't do good on the physical front we can safely assume digital is going bad too.
As for digital estimates publishers and manufacturers often come up with ratios, and we verify them with financial results too.

That's not my point though, I meaning since we really have no idea how much these games are selling digitally can we really say its a flop.

The thing with digital is that they don't have to show the sales numbers, and thus, if a game flops there, they will not do it. But that doesn't change the fact it has sold poorly. Also, in digital the prices can be more flexibles due to discounts and special offers, so two games that sell one million copies sold digitally each can have vastly different profits. We just don't know.

It depends on the budget for the game, I guess

If they don't make a profit from sales, it would be a flop

I'd say get back to us when we find out how many digital sales Paper Mario Color Splash sold.

It depends. If we're talking about a retail release with a lot of exposure, I think it's safe to make some assumptions.

Smaller titles is where it become a lot more murky.

It should be noted, however, that the percentage of digital vs retail grows over time, meaning tracking will get more and more out of wack the further it gets from week one.