The recent market report by entertainment research firm DFC Intelligence indicates that more than 90 percent of the global sales of all PC games came from downloads, according to PCR Online.
This means less than 10 percent only came from physical game title sales. The figures are the result of the popularity of downloadable games from game developers.
In the U.K. alone, £1.18 billion came from downloadable game sales for the PC, tablet and consoles. As for physical games, they only accounted for £1.015 billion.
The report covers data from 2013 but DFC believes the trend will continue in years to come.
In a similar report released by the NPD Group last year, the second quarter of 2013 also showed a decline in physical game sales, IGN reported.
According to NPD, from April to June, consumers spent $2.88 billion on game-related services such as subscriptions, updates and other mobile features. Out of the stated value, $1.77 billion was spent on digital games alone.
Liam Callahan, the industry analyst of NPD explained that the findings of the report show how game companies and consumers are adapting to the latest trend in the tech industry.
"[This] is to be expected as developers, publishers and consumers alike prepare for the next hardware generation," he said. "Increases in digital format spending offset nearly all the losses from the declines in physical format spending."
Like the rise of digital games, the PC industry is also winning the market battle against its console competitors. A study from the Jon Peddie Research revealed that at $21.5 billion, the PC market is worth more than twice compared to its rivals.
Senior gaming analyst Ted Pollack noted that this is due to hardcore gamers beefing up their computers to accommodate the specs of high-end games. Aside from this, the popularity of mobile devices has significantly affected the sales for consoles, according to Jon Peddie.
"We continue to see a shift in casual console customers moving to mobile," he explained. "While this is also occurring in the lower end PC gaming world, more money is being directed to mid and high range PC builds and upgrades by gamers."
"Committed PC gamers are generally not interested in pure content consumption platforms," he added. "They are power users and pay thousands for the ability to play games at very high settings."
