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PC gaming worth $16.2 billion in 2010

Mat Bettinson

by Mat Bettinson
Wednesday, March 2nd 2011 at 1:14AM

PC gaming worth $16.2 billion in 2010

The PC Gaming Alliance has released a preliminary report which suggests that far from shrinking, the PC gaming software market grew strongly in 2010.

Commissioning research from market research outfit DFC Intelligence, the non profit PC Gaming Alliance released early details (pdf) at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco. 

The group claims the global PC games market attained a record $16.2 billion in revenue in 2010.

The figure points to an astonishing 20 per cent growth over 2009 with no geographical region showing a decline in overall PC game revenue. The findings are in stark contrast to an overall drop in traditional retail sales of boxed PC games as tracked by traditional market research firms such as NPD.

"The spotlight has definitely shifted back to the PC game market," said PCGA boss Matt Ployhar.

"A few of the biggest factors fuelling this movement are innovative business models making games more accessible with digital distribution, free to play, and online; along with game formats embracing the shifts occurring in the evolution of the PC ecosystem to remain more profitable." 

Ployhar claimed that large game publishers were increasingly turning to digital distribution of PC games as a "key area of growth".

The report concludes that the PC game business will continue to grow at 9 per cent up to $23 billion in 2014. Valve's Steam service was said to "dominate" the full sized game digital delivery market.

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Tags: Games, market research, pc games

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