UKIE: First PC download chart coming next month
Jamie Donnelly January 24, 2012 - 8:33 pmUKIE has announced that it will be publishing the UK’s first PC download chart next month.
Next month the long overdue PC download chart will be published alongside the regular UK sales charts, UKIE has announced. It’s been a long time coming, as a PC chart counting only physical sales is frankly archaic in a market that is becoming increasingly digital, and has been heading in that direction for many years.
Speaking about the chart, UKIE CEO Jo Twist said: “UKIE is committed to measuring the size of the digital games market and is delighted to announce that it will be launching a public Beta of the UKIE PC Download Chart in February. Having this digital data alongside our UKIE Games Charts for boxed products will allow the games industry to lobby government even more effectively, and allow our members to make informed and fact based commercial decisions.”
Geoff Heath, head of UKIE’s Digital Group, called for developers and publishers to aid the download chart by contributing their data. He said: “The launch of UKIE’s PC Download Chart is great news for the industry. We all hear that digital sales are growing but we don’t know by how much or in which area. UKIE’s PC Download Chart is a first step to getting a full understanding of where the industry is developing but this is just the beginning and we still need more input from industry. We need your data!”
I doubt anybody needs to be told about just how many games are sold digitally, and recently Bethesda‘s Skyrim became the fastest-selling game in Steam’s history. The epic RPG was also the fifth best-selling game of 2011, and might have been even higher if those digital sales had been counted.
You can find the latest UK Chart news here at BeefJack every week.
