PC Gaming Myths @ ExtremeTech

Yes, it's a bit of a tired subject but ExtemeTech's PC Gaming Myths includes a look at the sales side data (although it lacks specific individual multiplatform title comparisons):

Sales tracking firm NPD said there were "over $970 million" in PC game sales, and $7.4 billion in total game sales. So, roughly a billion in sales for the PC, and $6.4 billion for consoles. Consoles are slaughtering PCs, right? Actually, it's not that simple.

First of all, it's a stacked deck. The PC is one platform, the Xbox 360 is one platform, the PlayStation 3 is one platform, the Nintendo DS is one platform, etc. If you make a game for the PS3, it doesn't magically run on the 360 any more than it magically runs on the PC. PC game sales as tracked by NPD are being beat over 6:1 by the combination of all console platforms. Of course it is! NPD did not provide a breakdown by platform (except for the PC), though. Divvy up that $6.4 billion in console sales into its respective separate platforms: Xbox, PS2, Gamecube, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, and PSP. There are at least nine major "console" platforms, each as incomparable to each other as the PC is to consoles, contributing to that $6.4 billion in sales. If the distribution were even (and it's not), you'd have about $711 million per console platform. Now, the PC is leading! Of course, consoles like the PS2, Nintendo DS, and Xbox 360 had the lion's share of game sales, while newer and more expensive systems like the PS3 with a more limited software lineup had less. It's safe to assume, in the absence of specific console-by-console data, that PC game sales fell somewhere in the middle of the pack—behind the top few console systems, and ahead of several others. You could certainly characterize the PC as selling games at retail "just as well" as "the average console system."