Burning Crusade fueling PC gaming resurgence?

In January, NPD Funworld reported that, after sliding in 2005, PC gaming had bounced back in 2006. According to the industry research group, last year some $970 million worth of boxed PC games were sold in the US, up from $953 million the previous year.

Now, 2007 appears to be shaping up as a banner year for PC gaming. A recent New York Times article (registration required) cites NPD figures showing that $203 million of PC games were sold at US retailers through the end of February. That's a 48 percent increase over the $136.9 million generated during the same two-month period in 2006. (NPD had not provided said numbers to GameSpot directly as of press time.)

While impressive, the NPD PC numbers represent only a fraction of revenue being generated by PC games, as they do not include online transactions. Most significantly, the figures also don't include subscription fees for massively multiplayer online role-playing games such as World of Warcraft, which currently has over 8.5 million paying subscribers.

"The robust performance we're seeing in PC game sales can be tied to several key titles across several genres," NPD analyst Anita Frazer told the Times. "But we'd be remiss not to address the continued success of World of Warcraft."

To underline WOW's success, the Times cites NPD figures showing a 43 percent increase in MMORPG sales. However, nowhere does the article mention the main reason for the genre's 2007 spike--the release of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.

From the time it went on sale on January 17 to February 28, the first WOW expansion sold nearly 1.6 million copies in the US, generating just over $62.1 million in revenue. Remove The Burning Crusade from the equation, and only $140.9 million of boxed PC games were sold in 2007. That's a mere $4 million--or 2 percent--increase, year over year.