Anyone wondering what the difference is between the U.S. PC gaming market and the console game market needs only to look at the 2006 sales numbers. PC game sales, which does not include the sale of PCs, grew 1 percent over 2005 to $970 million. In contrast, the sale of console games, not including hardware or accessories, was $6.43 billion in 2006. That's billion with a b. While the PC gaming market is cetainly going to get much-needed help from the growth of digital distribution (retail shelves are overcrowded with console games and leave little room for anything outside of franchise games), it's nowhere near the console game market.

The top PC games in the U.S. in 2006 was "World of Warcraft," Blizzard's massively multiplayer online game. That title sold 969,000 copies bringing its worldwide subscriber number to over 8 million gamers. Also note, this chart includes only game sales, not subscription sales. Blizzard is generating about $1 billion annually from gamers paying monthly fees to play this game.

"The Sims 2" and its expansion packs dominated the sales charts in 2006. That game franchise has sold over 70 million copies globally. "The Sims 2" sold 598,000 copies alone. Five of the Top 10 games of 2006 were in "The Sims 2" family. Other top titles were also from established franchises like "Star Wars: Empire at War" from LucasArts and Bethesda Softworks' "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion." Ensemble's "Age of Empires III" continued to sell copies for Microsoft and 2K Games' "Civilization IV" was a best-seller.

Moving forward, I expect franchises like the list below to continue to dominate the PC charts. This year the new "World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade" will be a top seller, as will be the new "Unreal Tournament 2007" from Epic Games. As for the smaller games from independent developers, they will get new opportunities to reach an audience digitally, bypassing stores for outlets like Steam.com and even Xbox Live Marketplace. I also expect to see more games sold episodically, like "Sin" was last year.


World of Warcraft (11/04, Vivendi)
The Sims 2 (9/04, EA)
The Sims 2: Open for Business exp. (3/06, EA)
Star Wars: Empire at War (2/06, LucasArts)
The Sims 2: Pets exp. (10/06, EA)
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (3/06, Take Two)
Age of Empires III (10/05, Microsoft)
The Sims 2 Family Fun exp. (4/06, EA)
Civilization IV (10/05, Take Two)
The Sims 2 Nightlife exp. (9/05, EA)