NPD Group: World of Warcraft Pushes 1M, PC Sales Up 1% In 06

According the the NPD Group (who are these guys anyway?) 2006 was a pretty good year for PC gaming. No, PC gaming isn't dead like everyone says every time new consoles come out. Far from it it seems. According to the statistics, PC game sales grew 1% in 2006 topping $970 million. This figure adds to the previous story I reported on with the entire gaming sector seeing sales topping $12.5 billion (making for a total of $13.5 billion) in 2006. With PC game sales included, 2006 saw an 18% increase over 2005, and a whopping 15% higher than 2002 when the industry saw sales hit a meager $10.5 billion.

Remember though, none of these numbers for the PC include online content and subscriptions. Also of note from the report is the fact that World of Warcraft dominated the retail sales chart for 2006, leading the way as it were. According to the report, WoW sold 967,000 units in 2006. Of course, The Sims 2 sold only 598,000 units, but when you combine The Sims 2 and the 90,344 expansions, they overtake WoW of course. So here is the top ten best selling retail PC games for 2006:

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)

The report also listed the top 10 best selling games overall on any platform (exluding the PC though) and shockingly Madden 2007 was numero uno. Go ahead to Next-Gen to read the entire story if you like.