Over the last few years physical and retail sales in the gaming market have slowly fallen, mainly due to the rise in digital sales over the same period. The NPD Group, which tracks and provides monthly reports on the best selling gaming hardware, software and gaming accessories at retail, has announced its plans to track digital sales of a handful of major publishers in the gaming industry. The group has launched a digital point-of-sale sourced service, tracking SKU-level sales data on digital games.

“With the participation and support of leading publishers – whose cooperation makes this possible – we are excited to launch an industry-first service that addresses a long-standing need,” said Joanne Hageman, President, U.S. Toys & Games, The NPD Group.

Some of the publishers who have signed on at this point are: Activision-Blizzard, Capcom, Deep Silver, Electronic Arts, Square Enix, Take 2 Interactive, Ubisoft and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. All of these publishers will have select digital data included in the next monthly NPD report. Currently only those who have signed on to have their data published will be included in the reports.

NPD’s Digital Games Tracking Service will track digital data for full-games as well as add-on content for consoles, portables and also for PC. Currently only data from Xbox Live and PlayStation Network will be collected, meaning no data from services like Uplay, Origin or the eShop will be collected. Microsoft, along with Sony and Nintendo, has yet to sign on. With The NPD Group finally tracking digital sales of some of the biggest publishers in the industry, it should give everyone a better idea of the state of digital sales in the gaming industry.

Sources: NPD and Game Informer