For years, the data-tracking company The NPD Group has been one of the sources of information when it comes to physical game sales month-to-month, with the company having announced it will begin to incorporate digital games sales in its monthly reports starting this month.

In a press release, The NPD Group announced that the company will be begin adding digital games sales sourced from select publishers, starting with the upcoming June sales report that will be released on July 21st, 2016.

Specifically, digital games sales will be tracked by The NPD Group from the following publishers that have opted in to providing sales data:

  • Activision-Blizzard
  • Capcom
  • Deep Silver
  • Electronic Arts
  • Square Enix
  • Take Two Interactive
  • Ubisoft
  • Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Sales of digital games will be pulled specifically from PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, while PC software sales will be designated in their own chart as a culmination between digital sales through Steam and physical copies in retail. However, as the big first-party publishers, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have not yet opted-in to providing digital sales numbers for their titles through NPD reports.

The NPD Group also clarified that digital sales will not be provided from some specific sources, such as Ubisoft's Uplay platform, EA's Origin platform, Blizzard's Battle.net, and the Nintendo eShop.

The NPD Group president of US Toys & Games Joanne Hageman also provided a statement regarding the inclusion of digital games in the company's reports, with Hageman explaining:

"As has been experienced across a wide variety of industries, digital has made a big impact on the overall gaming market, and we’ve risen to meet the demand for a reporting mechanism that tracks those sales in a timely and accurate way. 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.”