You wouldn't guess it when your looking at forums, because that is where the gaming nerds are and they consider it worthwhile to buy a expensive gaming PC. So on forums (like this one) the percentage of PC gamers is much higher. So I think 10% on the PC is very accurate.

But that doesn't mean the million on the 360 are true Elder Scrolls fans. Many of them just messed around a little in Oblivion, then stopped after 20+ hours to get a compleetly different game. So when you're talking about true Elder Scrolls fans (and RPG fans in general) then the percentage on the PC is much higher. But when you're looking at the full demographic of those who played Oblivion then it is fair to say that the fast majority of them are on consoles.

Casual gamers in general are on consoles, and PC gaming (beyond the hardcoe gamers) is indeed dying. There is a reason why Bethesda and other companies are forced to take note of the causal gamers who want it simplified for the 10-30 hours that they will be playing it. They are paying just as much for the game and they come in much greater numbers.

I know, why do people think they need to spend tons of money every year? My brother had his computer for 5 years before he bought a new one, and he is a hardcoe PC gamer.

I've had my computer now for 3 years, planning on buying a new one for BF3 and skyrim etc because I want a graphics card that support dx11 ^^

So, maybe I should buy 2x copies of Skyrim instead of the CE? :ahhh:

Some comments on here have been ridiculous.The figures don't lie. Consoles are huge and are getting stronger each and every day. Take the kinect,it's in the guiness book of records for the fastest selling electronical device ever. Consoles reach allsorts of age ranges in the gaming world,it's allowing younger and older people to experience fun and games. Xbox 360 has sold about 55 million consoles to date,PS3 around 49-50 million.That's over a 100 million units,and both are still selling strong.How would games companies not have their heads turned by that?

And now they are thinking of adding mods to consoles.Even if this doesn't happen now or in this gen,i'll bet it will happen on the next gen. I'm afraid console's are the future of gaming,their easier to use,they're more accessable,and they provide a good overall entrtainment system.They are basically going to be like PC's,but without the hassle of conflicts and other things.Things are changing,whether we like or not. It's about time console user's got a little bit more respect. They weren't the ones to tell companies to go to console,thats up to the companies themselves,we just buy and play these games.But we've made games companies grow at an alarming rate,it's as simple as that.

And according to some estimates, there have been over 100 million DX10 capable graphics cards sold in the last two years alone, and a similar number of gaming-capable laptops. We simply do not have accurate enough numbers to speculate on an exact split, and any numbers we do get tend to put all three major platforms on about equal footing.

You always have to churp in with something. Again the figures don't lie. Just accept it and move on....end of story.

Accurate figures don't lie. We don't have accurate figures. What few figures we do have show an even split. You can spin things whichever way you like, but unless your aim is propaganda you simply cannot say anything without decent figures, and we don't have *any*.

But okay, if we're forgetting silly things like facts! A 200 million strong gaming-capable userbase was created in the last two years alone, cards from 5 years ago still hold their own. Obviously this proves there are 500 million PC gamers out there. See? I can do it too - we don't have good enough figures to speculate, we should stop speculating.

Sorry man,but i give up with people like you.I'll leave it there.

I'm sorry I don't share your views. You may find Xbox Republic more friendly if you would prefer circlejerking to factually backed up discussion (Which is impossible here).

And just to back you up, PC gaming has actually hit a huge resurgence. EA said in their last earnings report almost 60% of their sales were from PC sales(online and off).

PC games have seen a 20% increase in sales pretty much every year, making over $16.2 billion in revenue in 2010 alone.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/03/01/pc-is-strong-pc-games-revenue-up-20/

PC sales never really went down, but it did not help when a whole lot of (Microsoft and sony backed) anolysts decried the end of PC gaming for years. In reality, if devs and publishers did'nt make money on PC game sales they would stop making them, when In fact the trend is more and more are making PC games now.

The numbers quoted in this article, were years old NPD numbers. NPD does not track online sales, and they only track sales from sample stores in their group. Meaning they dont really have accurate numbers at all. 500k copies of oblivion? No that is wrong. Oblivion PC sales were probably closer to half of the total. But NPD would not record that as their main sales figure provider , gamestop, has 3 copies of a sims expansion and world of warcraft for the mac.

The future of gaming is services like Steam, Direct2drive, gog ect. The amount of games sold through them has never really been able to be counted. But that is where the future is, that is what gaming will look like in 5 years.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet as I can't read through 11 pages of posts right now, but PC sales figures don't include digital sales. To begin with Oblivion was sold online only via digital retailers like D2D, and later on Steam. Bethesda had a Steam sale last year and TESNexus's traffic almost doubled for a couple of weeks as new PC Oblivion players started looking for mods. An extra 60,000 new unique visitors a day to the site at the time, and none of these sales would have been accounted for in any statistics you're reading.

If the PC sales figures were only 550,000 I would be incredibly disappointed, considering http://www.tesnexus.com/stats.php have downloaded mods from TESNexus. That would mean a piracy ratio of over 2:1. I don't doubt piracy is very rampant on the PC, and I don't begrudge developers moving to more console-centric models considering the amount of idiot pirates there are, but still, I don't think the number of pirates to purchasers is that high.

Edit: got ninja'd by the post above mine

No worries, It's nice to be on the same page with you on something:)

But yeah as was stated earlier int he post, the piracy numbers on the consoles are not small either. As someone else said, sometimes you will see a pirated game out for PC before its launch date, however nearly every major 360 release has been leaked before its launch date in the past few years.

I think all 3 platforms have strong sales, and I think all 3 have huge issues with piracy. Piracy by and large is a current developer scapegoat for issues with the PC version of their games. It is fast becoming clear to everyone the fallacy it really is.

On a personal note I know many people who used to pirate games, but since steam got popular they don't even bother and either buy on steam or wait for a sale:)

Blah,blah.....it's not about backing someone up,it's about what's happening in the gaming world my friend. Or are you completely blind?
Take a big whiff of what's happening,take it in and enjoy the smell,it will be easier for you.

Actually it would be just the opposite, and leads a little bit into my disbelief in the number.

If PC only made up 10% of Oblivion's total sales that means there is a huge untapped audience out there for the game. Depending on how much you factor in Digital Distribution there is easily another 1.5 - 2 million sales out there to be made rather easily. Someone in Todd's position or the folks there at Beth Publishing are not simply going to "ignore" a huge and easily accessed market like that. If this were the case you would be seeing a lot rhetoric in the interviews like "enhancing the PC experience" and "just for the PC" to try and pull in that market they missed the last time.

They aren't doing that however, quite the opposite in fact. That alone leads me to believe the 10% number can't really be close to accurate. That or no one over at Beth has any business sense what so ever. I don't believe that is the case.

Post limit.