The NPD Group has published its Online Gaming 2012 report. According to the results, more than one-third of customers who bought games in the past three months would prefer to purchase a game digitally instead of receiving a physical copy. This is up 10% compared to results found in 2011.

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According to NPD, data for the survey was collected over a three week period and included nearly 8,500 individual respondents. While digital downloads have been standard practice on PC for a long time, consoles have recently begun offering equally robust options, including Sony selling Vita games on PSN the same day as in stores and possibly doing the same for PS3 . Nintendo recently announced that Wii U and 3DS will adopt a similar strategy The report also revealed that 40% of those surveyed reported obtaining at least one game in both the physical and digital formats. “Gamers are growing more comfortable in acquiring content online, as we saw the preference for digital increase ten percentage points from last year,” said NPD analyst Liam Callahan. “The proliferation of free games on mobile devices has reduced the barrier of entry for online gaming to zero, fueling an increase in acquisition.”Gamers also responded to questions about multi-functionality on consoles and portables, admitting that they spend less money on games due to entertainment features being available on the same device. More than 20% of gamers said members of their household use gaming systems for entertainment activities.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN