In the latest edition of "RTB's Obvious News," I present you with an alarming statistic:

Digital purchases make up most video game sales in the United states at around 74% of purchases, according to a study by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).

I know, I can hear it now: "Obvious news is obvious, R-T-B. Why'd you post this? Your news sucks!" etc etc. Believe it or not, I have a reason for bringing this seemingly lame study to your attention, and that's because despite the headline being lame, the study actually contains some interesting tidbits about the gaming market in general.First off, there are 24% of people who still buy hard copies. I find that... fascinating, and I'm sure that future Alien Archeologists will agree. Moving on, the study shows that in most cases of under-18 gamers, not only are parents present when they make their digital purchases, but the parents actually play said games with their children at least once weekly in 67% of instances (I don't know about you, but my mom only played Tetris, and I hated that game). Regardless, this shows increased interaction between children and parents in the digital-gaming sphere, something that traditionally has not been reported in past studies.

Gender disparity is also dissolving in this most recent report. 31% of the video game playing population is comprised of females between the ages of 18 and 35. Interestingly, this outnumbers the number of males under the age of 18 (at 18%, and no that is not a typo), although it still falls behind males in general in gaming (at 62%).

Reasons for purchasing a game? Forget story and gameplay, or any of that stuff. It's on the list, but it didn't rank tops. What sells games? Graphics people, glorious graphics. 67% indicated that "Quality of the Graphics" was their #1 factor in picking a video game.

There's more, but it's a lot to digest. Read the study yourself in the source link if you want to: The report is an easy to digest interactive webpage. Go ahead, it's worth a few moments of your time. Honest, this is coming from a guy who's usually bored from this stuff.

EDIT: It appears the mobile version of this study and the pdf version show differing figures for the "top reasons for purchasing a game" section. I'm unsure what to make of the results there, so take them with a grain of salt. See post #31 in this thread for more info.