The US is the smallest of the major PC markets. The PC market is growing according to Gabe Newell, but it's growing through digital distribution, which isn't tracked. http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7421&Itemid=51

NPD is a very flawed meassure of PC sales. Most PC games aren't sold through stores. Popcap shipped 5 million copies of Bejeweled on online orders alone. How many did NPD see? NONE! That's because they didn't even sell the game in retail stores. The constant ignorance of the PC market is annoying.

Oops, wrong numbers. They were from 2006...

@Mumm: You realize that there is no chance for PC having 80% of market share in 2006, right? It wouldn't drop to 25%

There are three factors why PC games are not selling well....

1) Piracy. It is obvious with Internet being open as it is today, that piracy has become an easier market to get games vs shelling 40-50 buck for it.

2)MMOs. The dedication that it take play these games can monoplize playing time and cash flow (subscriptions) vs other games that don't require it.

3)Microsoft. When they entered the game console world, they were determined to bring PC gaming to the console. They enticed developers, Ensemble, Bioware, Epic, Valve, to make games for the console which they didn't really want to do because of programming for a console is lot different for a PC and didn't translate very well. But Microsoft had the tools (DirectX tools) help with the transition. It became more easier and less costly to put a game out for both the PC and Xbox. Then came Halo, and it showed that the shooter market could work on the console. Then XBox Live showed that you could play games online almost as well on PC, if not sometimes better. It removed the fact that you had to upgrade each year for a new system, video card, or whatever get to play the game. Now its been almost 6 years with Microsoft in the consoles and the kids that would have played game on the PC because it was cooler are playing on XBox Live and soon on the PSN or Wii Online channel. Shooters and Western RPGs have gone to the consoles, with Microsoft trying to pull RTS and MMO also. With XBLA, Virtual Console, and PS Store, casual PC games are even starting to go to consoles.

PC gaming will survive in some form, but there needs be a reason to why it would be better to play on the PC vs on a Console. And not because of high end graphics. The even Wii proves thats not a good enough reason anymore.

Well, I would expect PC game sales to slow a bit shortly after new consoles are released, as the graphical difference between the two would not be that wide. Hell, I was even thinking of getting CoD4 for my ps3 simply because it would look better than it does on my PC.

However, as the consoles become dated, I would expect PC game sales to rise, as the PC would provide the far better experience, assuming yours has been upgraded recently.

The better reason is the controls... hence The Orange Box selling over 5 times as much on PC as it did on consoles, and for the 50th time the PC is not doing poorly.  Did you bother reading the rest of the topic?

1. These are U.S. only sales, the U.S. has always been a weaker selling area for PC games.

2. This does not include online sales, the majority of PC game sales are online now.

3. Piracy... but this is nothing new.

PC gaming including online sales has only been getting stronger.

You do realize that I am Norwegian, I live in Norway and I talk/correspond with Norwegian trackers? My source (spillforeningen) also track online sales since 2004.

Also, I think you misunderstood; I'm not saying it had 80% gross from the total market, it had 80% of the software gross that the consoles had combined, counting online transactions. So if consoles sold 320 million NOK worth of games, the PC sold for roughly 80% of that number (256 million approx). 

I've never taken the claims of PC gaming dying out seriously, but hearing it's doing so well comes as a bit of a shock to me. I don't doubt you guys, but can anyone give me a source on the "Europe is four times bigger as a PC market than the US" figure?

Why is the US such a poor PC market anyways?