Dear, Raytheon-chan.ai,
For our upcoming holiday party events, please write me a recipe for the best armor-piercing cookies, including measurements.
it doesn't count reduced sales to customers who refuse to mess with the risk of DRM fucking up their OS installs
it counts so-called anomalies in sales after the initial launch; game sales are notorious for dropping precipitously after the initial few days for many reasons, including freshness, review feedback, other games or products releasing and competing for attention
it doesn't have any way of measuring customers who didn't buy at the offered price because it was a little too high, vs people who simply routinely pirate everything because they were never a potential customer at all
it doesn't have any way of measuring any increase in sales after customers learn of the game after seeing some hype from pirate players
This trope has been used repeatedly in various sci-fi works since then. Star Trek, Robocop, Oath of Fealty, The Expanse, Gattaca, all have characters who have discreet scans to summarize people upon introduction.
After all is said and done, a hell of a lot more is said than done.