PC Data released its 1998 US Software Sales Statistics report Wednesday, tracking retail and mail-order sales, and pronounced reference, finance, and educational software "the big winners of the year."

　　Overall, 1998 retail software revenues increased 13 percent over 1997, to US$5.2 billion. PC Data also reports that the price of retail software fell 8.9 percent to $38.68 in 1998, the largest year-over-year price decline it has ever recorded.

　　Microsoft was the largest software publisher, accounting for more than 23 percent of total 1998 software sales dollars, PC Data reported. The Learning Company, in second place, accounted for 11 percent of retail sales.

　　Turning to games, Havas Interactive (perhaps more recognizable under its old name, Cendant Software) had the most sales, accounting for nearly 19 percent of 1998 revenues. Its strategy title Starcraft was the top-selling PC game for the year.

　　Electronic Arts came in second with 13 percent of revenues, and GT Interactive took third place with an approximate 9 percent share. PC Data says that the average price of game software dropped nearly $4 per box, from $27.41 in 1997 to $23.34 in 1998.

　　"There were simply not as many 'hit' games released in 1998, which fueled the price drop considerably," said Ann Stephens, president of PC Data. "With a few notable exceptions, many of the newly released top-sellers were low-cost hunting games, which do not appeal to traditional gamers, who are far less cost-sensitive."

　　The list of top-selling games for 1998 (rank, title, publisher, average price) looked like this: 1. Starcraft (Havas Interactive) $422. Deer Hunter (GT Interactive) $183. Myst (Learning Company) $184. Microsoft Flight Sim (Microsoft) $445. Deer Hunter II 3D (GT Interactive) $186. Titanic: Adv Out of Time (Havas Interactive) $247. Lego Island (Learning Company) $25 8. Frogger (Hasbro Interactive) $319. Diablo (Havas Interactive) $2710. Age Of Empires (Microsoft) $37 11. Riven (Learning Company) $3912. Cabela's Big Game Hunter (Activision) $1913. Monopoly (Hasbro Interactive) $2314. Unreal (GT Interactive) $38 15. Barbie Riding Club (Mattel) $3116. Quake II (Activision) $4517. Scrabble (Hasbro Interactive) $2818. Microsoft Return of Arcade (Microsoft) $2719. Rocky Mountain Trophy Hunter (GT Interactive) $1920. Barbie Nail Designer (Mattel) $17

　　And here's the list of the top-selling software across all categories (rank, title, publisher, average price): 1. Windows 98 Upgrade (Microsoft) $882. TurboTax (Intuit) $303. TurboTax Deluxe (Intuit) $444. Starcraft (Havas Interactive) $42 5. Quicken Deluxe (Intuit) $586. Deer Hunter (GT Interactive) $187. VirusScan 3 (Network Associates) $308. Taxcut (Block Financial) $189. TurboTax Multi State (Intuit) $2910. Myst (Learning Company) $1811. Windows 95 Upgrade (Microsoft) $9212. Microsoft Plus 98 (Microsoft) $3513. Microsoft Flight Sim (Microsoft) $4414. Quicken (Intuit) $2815. Deer Hunter II 3D (GT Interactive) $1816. Norton Antivirus 4 (Symantec) $4017. Titanic: Adv. Out of Time (Havas Interactive) $2418. Lego Island (Learning Company) $2519. Frogger (Hasbro Interactive) $3120. Encarta Encyclopedia (Microsoft) $29