Physical Games Represented Just 4% of Sales for PlayStation Last Quarter

I've definitely shifted more towards digital myself these days. It's more because it takes up a lot less space than anything. I'll still buy physical if it's a better deal though.

This information is unsurprising. Not only are physical games on the decline, plus there are other factors like used games that further bite into them, Sony makes more money from each digital game sale, especially with first party. Digital games are cheaper to distribute and revenue does not get split with a retailer.

I'm sure physical is on a slight decline, but who knows, they might be exaggerating the numbers to make everyone think physical is dead to push digital further. Most people I know still prefer physical and anyone who cares about ownership and consumer rights should to. If you're too lazy to move your ass to swap a disc, go digital I guess, but exercise is good for ya.

I buy 99% of my games digitally because I hate hearing the disc drive spin up when I switch on 🤣

Physical PS4 games tend to be way cheaper than digital after they've been out a while, and Sony doesn't provide much incentive to abandon the disc format, so almost all of my 'big' purchases on PS4 are physical still.

Whereas on Switch, I'm 70%+ digital for big purchases. The vouchers, gold coins, and pretty much constant eshop credit sales online make it a much more attractive option to go digital on their platform.

Only reason I haven't gotten BG3 yet is due to digital only. If I walked by it at my local Walmart, I'd have picked it up, but being available anytime from my couch....might as well wait until I'm ready to play, a sale could pop up!

I still buy physical whenever I can but more out of pragmatic reasons these days. Every once in a while, there's a game that I end up not liking, so I can make the majority of money back quickly. Also, I always get games 2-5 days early (nice little bonus) and they are usually cheaper here.

In the past, I used to love looking at my games on the shelf and build a collection. However, that has changed over the last couple of years, it doesn't really give me anything any more. I'll probably still buy physical as long as I can for the reasons mentioned above but a digital only future certaintly won't stop me from gaming altogether. I also had no issue buying Alan Wake 2 at launch. Also, depending on how the Portal will perform, I could see myself getting annoyed with physical more and more if PS5 remote play becomes a frequent playstyle for me.

I like my games in physical form, I like collecting and seeing my games on the shelf. That said, lately I've been buying a lot of games in digital form, and physical games only when I know they are complete on disc (retro collections, game of the year edition, etc). What's the point of having the game today, if there are updates on the first day to make the game playable? In a few years, these blu rays will be useless.
So, I still continue to buy games in physical form, but only selected ones. Just like my vinyls.

Yeah, I don't own a single physical disk for my PS5, and I've had it since launch. Genuinely believe the next generation of consoles will be digital only (apart from Nintendo).

Well yeah not shocking despite how stubborn some are with the digital future. This is why Alan Wake 2 is safe being digital only.

I do not own a single digital game for my ps5, everything is physical. The only digital games I have are the free ones from ps plus

@Mauzuri If the Xbox leaks come true the next gen Xbox is digital only and i wouldn't be shocked if the PS6 is as well.

Shows you how small the vocal minority really is. I have 100% confidence this is the last gen with a physical option.

@tameshiyaku Yeah Sony is exaggerating and risking huge legal issues by doing so because you and your friends don't do digital 🙄🙄🙄

But most of that are from games in sales? What's the percentage just for new releases at full price?

Personally I rely on physical copies for 90% of my games, physical copies are around £10-£15 cheaper than digital, and once completed I can sell them and put the money towards my next game.

If the future of playstation is fully digital then I will be buying less games and playing less hours on playstation consoles, I can't afford to be spending £70 a game with no return once it's done, I buy around 20 new games a year so digitally that's £1400 per year and that's not viable for me. Yet now I'd say I spend £45 average each game so that's £900 a year but I get £500 of that back by selling them on ebay.

They won't be planning on making many of those disc drive separates for the new PS5 model then.

No one should be shocked by this.

@DennisReynolds Xbox's push to digital only is earlier than next gen, the Xbox leaks revealed that the current Series X disc model is being replaced by a digital only Series X model in 2024.

I still can't work out how a physical Copy costs less than a download copy at launch

i continue to buy physical for more expensive games when i can, and trade them for credit when done. Why pay to play something once and then not recoup 60% of that? Switch games are the best - ive bought some at launch discount prices and actually earned more in credit for them when i traded them.

Maybe the younger gen don't gloss over price differences for ease with digital. I bought recently day one SM2 for 60 and FF16 for 57,50 at retail, in the PS shop they were 80 euros and some games even push 90.

and I can even sell them to recoup cost or just keep them. If you lose your account, you lose all your games.

As a collector I am physical all day but it is a b*mmer I miss out on some indies and such games as Alan Wake 2 & Baldur's Gate 3 although the latter hasn't completely closed the door on a physical release so I am hopeful.

@DennisReynolds i think Playstation would keep physical for atleast one more generation. External drive or something. Let playstation maintain broader brand awareness for casuals and families buying gifts. First person running through a digital only wall would bound to be beaten for it

@Grumblevolcano I know that but its still possible to stay physical this Gen with Xbox.

@Grumblevolcano did it say it was going to be completely replaced? Because if not then it’s just as much a push as Sony’s machines.

@Ralizah “ Switch, I'm 70%+ digital ”

That’s just b/c the cartridges taste bad. 😂

That 4% number seems more like it’s really 16%, 21% of digital is new games, and 2/3 makes me think it’s closer to 1/3 for games. Do we know if they count PS+ subscription income as money spent on digital?🤷🏻‍♂️

When you consider that so many $60/70 physical games have $30 season passes or dlc, then there are games like Destiny and CoD where you may be paying more for the dlc than the game, and Fortnite, Minecraft et al are all digital, well let’s just say the figure is heavily skewed.

How many physical copies of Spider-Man 2 or GoW:R vs digital, those are the real numbers, the rest is spin to push their narrative to get out of making discs.🤑

Are people even reading the article?
It’s not 4% physical games and 96% digital games.
It’s 4% physical games, 21% digital games and 75% microtransactions.

People will make this sound worse than it actually is. Keep in mind a lot of indie games or whatever are digital only when they first come out. Sometimes for a long time. I feel its more likely for a physical person to buy digital games sometimes than vice versa due to things like this.

I have not bought a digital game ever. I bought stuff digitally like DLC and a small MT. If the only option is digital i tend not to buy it and wait for a LRG release or skip it completely.

I prefer physical format over digital any day of the week.

I'm really disappointed that Alan Wake 2 and the next Like A Dragon game don't have physical releases at the moment.

I don't mind getting up to swap discs, or storing them somewhere. I may only have a license to the game on the disc, but I have full ownership over the disc itself.

With physical, it helps to keep me grounded and ensure I don't buy more games than I can play. My drawer can only fit around 16 PS4/PS5 cases, so I'm never exceeding that number.

Also, it's nice to sometimes view and admire your physical collection of games. I don't think you get the same feeling when browsing through your library on the PS4 o PS5.

@DennisReynolds not saying me and my friends are representative of an overall market, but yeah, no company has ever misinterpreted their numbers, unfathomable!

@StephenTailby

Are those sales compared only for games released both (physically and digitally) or is it just all games? If this statistic is for all games, than it is heavily missleading, because you cannot compare things yhat don't exist.

There is maybe 1% of games on disc I'd like to buy. The rest is unfortunately only digital so I have no other option.

Now I would love to hear how much games are sold digital at full price not a deep sale. Or it shows how much is spend on MT only, DLC or digital only products.

@darkswabber It probably says more about how MT riddled the market is instead of how people disliked physical releases. Let's not forget how broken games are released.

I still buy physical only, there have been some digital only games, that I would have bought on physical, but not many.

I buy almost entirely digital. In Canada, I’ve not seen physical games sold cheaper than digital, and Sony has frequent sales that make buying digital a more affordable option. Having said that, I feel like the sales in the last few years haven’t been anywhere near as good as they were during the early days of the PS4 era.

@DennisReynolds I figure that the digital only Series X replacing the current disc Series X would result in publishers stop making physical games for Xbox. So while disc Series X owners could still buy older physical games, there wouldn't be new ones.

@K1LLEGAL Yes, the new setup being a 2 model setup of digital only Series X + Series S. It's possible Phil Spencer saw the backlash in response to the leaks and decides to change strategies but given what we've seen recently I think the Activision acquisition went to his head and we get full on arrogant Microsoft like Don Mattrick in 2013.

I stopped buying physical games ages ago. They're always like double the price where I live. No reason to pay that much.

Blast, I hate this. Even though I’m part of the problem and have shifted toward more and more digital, I still like my physical for big AAA titles.

Although, 4% is low, compared to 21%, it’s still enough to keep physical going for the short term but I feel fairly certain PS6 will be digital only.

We can’t let physical discs die

Fully digital the last 3 years. Is the way things are going so may as well get on board now.

Misleading numbers to overstate the preference of digital over physical, as a few people above explained very well.

The people cheering that on are pretty dim, since we're likely to be paying $100 a game once they finally succeed in killing off these physical formats and the resale market.

The thing nowadays is that day 1 patches are so big and important now, it's almost like the physical disk is now just a 'key' that lets you use the installed software.
The actual code on the disc (especially after multiple patching or even almost game rewrites ala Cyberpunk) becomes old and irrelevant compared to the latest version.

So yes you own the 'key' to playing the game and a box to keep it in. For digital that key is electronic and you have no box (and no resale of said 'key' of course).

I always picture a random event that could happen in my future trying to get out of a depressive bubble and debt for example with no WiFi and gaming is digital only and I think to myself "oooh, I will play a game to escape from all the bull crap", to then find out & remember the gaming device is not usable anymore due to the current situation, this is why I still buy physical copies.

Side thought and only partly tongue-in-cheek: does that mean every time there’s one of those “top 10 game sales figures” articles published here, with their constant caveats that they reflect physical sales only… should we basically multiply all the sales for games on PlayStation by a factor of 3? 😼

I know many are despondent by the lack of physical copies.

I however, am delighted that we are consuming what is entirely a digital medium in a way that doesn't waste resources and energy s much as making plastic download tickets. One day it will be 100% and that will be better for the planet - though of course its small dent in a consumerist world

I still buy all my games physical. I don't buy digital much anymore. Haven't bought one in ages now and I can't see myself doing it if physical was to end. Maybe buy the odd game now and again but I'd rather play the games from subscription than to buy digital. Games that release digital but not physical are the ones I skip. Will only play them when they enter PS+ or get a physical release.

Is this taking into account most games are digital only now a days any some physical copies come with download code in the box?

I've haven't got any new games on disc since early ps4/xbox one gen because I don't really see the point 🤷. Just hassle having to change game and I've a got a massive back catalogue that I can just download and jump into at any point in time. Along with cases taking up case and it taking alot long to install a game from disc then it takes me download a game... Consoles just copying the pc market with essentially digital only

What’s included in that 954b ? Micro transactions? DLC? Subscriptions? When you’ve drilled into it you say only 2/3 of game sales are digital. Yet a number of smaller titles especially are digital only?
These stats feel like they are massaged a little to push an agenda of digital sales.

Yeah because publishers are publishing without physical releases more often, since no one can trade is resell those.

@LazyLombax could be worse could come with no game at all cough cough red dead 2

Been digital since buying the steel book edition of MGS5: Phantom Pain in 2015 and have not looked back, to be honest.

My nostalgic yearning for physical stopped after my Megadrive/Saturn days (I still have those carts/discs).

it's never quite been the same for me since then, as I genuinely cannot think of a single title in the last 15+ years that I'd want to play 30 years down the line (although I would be 78 by then!).

Anyway, I'm off to shout at a cloud...

I still love physical games but I've been playing more and more games on my PC through Steam. Honestly the only physical games I've been buying now are PS5/Switch exclusives and that's really it.

For example: I wouldn't mind importing a physical copy of Like a Dragon Gaiden but I can just get it on PC and download/play it the same day, whereas the import would take a few weeks.

Physical for me all day long ,and several reasons why I buy physical, it still makes them alot money and I'm not gonna be forced down that digital only rabbit hole, choice is fantastic ,as for Alan wake 2 I would have bought it on disc if they'd released on disc ,its no worries though as I have a big backlog anyway,whatever you buy, disc or digital ,enjoy yr games fantastic hobby

I moved 100% physical after my Game Pass expired and I could not play half my games. Then my internet went out and my PS5 kept saying I could not play Diablo 2 without a connection.

Also, the shutting down of PS3 services has made me aware it's going to happen to the PS5 someday.

Stuff like Diablo4 I bought digital cause it's worthless without being online anyway so whatever.

I'll buy cheap junk digital but for big titles I keep physical and usually buy used. Most all my PS4 games are used physical. No reason to pay 2+x as much for the digital copy of an old PS4 game.

Most of my PS5 games are physical barring some cheap stuff like when I double-dipped GTAV for 10$ or got that Uncharted remake bundle for cheap digital.

My question is why does the PS5 spin the drive up when starting a digital game? Super annoying and I don't want any more wear on that thing than I can help.

edit: I also collect a bit so yeah; they just shut this stuff down and say 'oh well buy these new things'. Awful and glad emulation and piracy is around to save things cause these faceless nameless corps don't care.

@Mauzuri PSP Go released in a very different time and Stadia was streaming only. Fact is Digital gaming is growing by the day and its only a matter of time before physical gaming on PS and Xbox is dead, look at the Series S its beating the SX by quite a bit and sure it being cheaper helps but it shows people aren't put off by a digital only console.

As for the "renting" comment yeah thanks for proving you know jack about this topic. In an age where Day 1 updates are a thing and discs not having the full game there's actually little value in physical gaming outside of selling them on (something i stopped doing 10 years back). Honestly people like you remind me of old people who refuse to embrace the new reality and cling to the "good old days".

Overall, Physical is likely to be down as this is the first Gen Playstation console without a disc drive so those owners have no choice to buy Physical and are limited to Digital only purchases.

If 30% of the PS hardware sales are the Digital Only version, that's 30% that won't be buying Physical at all. They may have bought 'some' Physical games even if Digital is their main choice with a Disc based PS5 - but Sales and cheaper new releases may have tempted them but now 'can't' so that's going to impact Physical purchases.

With so many 'Digital' Only releases too, its not surprising that Physical with more 'limited' releases and only available on 'select' hardware (PS5 Disc/Series X - as Series S/PS5 Digital/PC are 'digital only' platforms), its no surprise that it accounts for such a small sector these days

The only physical editions I buy these days are for Collector's Editions, and they usually remain unopened. Indeed, I often then buy the same game digitally that I already own as a physical Collector's Edition. I know that may sound a bit odd to some, but I do that in order to keep the sealed integrity of the Collector's Edition, as collector's much prefer their Collector's Edition sealed when buying and selling.

I buy a lot of games, often several each month (and have a monster backlog of game to prove it!) and have pretty much been digital only since the start of the last generation. I only own around 15 physical games for the Xbox One / PS3, but have about 1351 games that I own digitally, which is pretty crazy really...

I've been leaning towards digital more as the years have gone by, I have bought some physical games here and there though. Like some time ago me and my dad 3d printed this Poke ball cart container with room for 9 Switch carts and a couple micro sd cards.

Can't get over how limiting the lack of a disc drive would be. I mean, what's the point of having a backward compatible console if you can't use the old console's media? It'd be like buying a digital only PS5 when you have a large collection of PS4 discs...

Got nothing against digital but I will always prefer physical as an option, especially when I can get most physical releases cheaper than I would with digital. If digital prices were better and sales were more generous like Steam I'd probably consider buying more releases digital but for now I'm happy to stick to buying physical releases on Switch and PS5.

Physical should always be an option. As some people already said it, reselling a recently released used game can get you 80% of your money back. Try getting something back from your digital collection. Its only value is a sentimental one.
Oh, and Nintendo games hold value like nothing else. Try starting a Switch collection and see if you can buy any used game for under 35$.

I've definitely shifted more towards digital myself these days. It is because it takes up a lot less space, + it's easier to get them. The last physical game that i bought was TLOU II 3 y/ago. I'll still buy physical, i want them to stay. i'm planning to buy some in december.

Of course Sony, thanks, selling your first party Collector's Edition and Special editions with a download code in the box recently, just ridiculous. Pushing gamers towards digital only is not a consumer friendly behavior I think. Nothing wrong with digital, just I prefer collecting games and resell it if I don't like them. Just let us making the choice, simply as that.
On the other hand I'm happy as my game collection is already worth a lot of money, and will just increase if there's no physical available anymore

My entire library is digital, between my PS5, Switch and Series S I don't have a single physical game. The idea of having to swap out a disc every time I change games makes me feel like I'm still in the 1990's.

@MikeOrator You make a lot of really excellent points!

@Mauzuri When has anyone lost their digital library of games they paid for by no fault of their own? Please tell me and provide evidence.

Presumably this is caused by people only playing psvr2 games and there are only very few physical releases /s

@darkswabber unfortunately no. Lots of people just come to the comments section and say their bit.

@Fuzzymonkeyfunk I buy digital so I don’t have to get off the couch to change games. 🤣

I've shifted in the other direction. I've stopped buying digital games, because they never get played. So I just stick to my discs.

@tameshiyaku lol slight decline you are in denial buddy

@koverby I know right 🤣

@Korgon I'm the same way multiple reasons though I don't got room for extra things after moving into a smaller place digital also arrives faster and I don't have to deal with going to a store and finding out the game isn't in stock and than have to spend more money traveling to a different store to check there 🙃

@Mauzuri The reason you lost access to your games is because prior to the Switch games were locked to console not account meaning it was very hard to recover digital games on them. As for digital games on 3DS, Wii U and Wii as far as i'm aware you can still download games you own but that's all you can do and again they locked to the console.

Worth noting Sony and MS have future proofed their stores as the PS4 store is the same store as the PS5 and that should carry over to the PS6 and so on. Unless Sony go bust there's no reason to fear losing games.

@MikeOrator Well yeah there's no account system on Wii so no sh*t you have to buy them again on Switch.

@Mauzuri Yeah i think its why its so easy to download PS4 games on PS5 as its all on the same server. I think the same applies to X1 and Series consoles as well.

"Sony Interactive Entertainment had a record-breaking second quarter in terms of revenue, pulling in ¥954.1 billion — up 32.38 per cent year-on-year."

Poor Sony. This explains why they had to raise prices on everything and cut loads of jobs. 😟

I find this convenient statistic a little hard to swallow. I think this is more likely some organisations feeding this data to media outlets to encourage a shift in thinking , trying to force people into accepting digital only.

That statistic MAY be relevant to your very casual gamer who only plays the annual boring sports game or call of duty but there are far too many retail outlets online that sell physical games for this to be an accurate representation of the true numbers. The speed they deliver physical games to me and my physical game collecting friends seems to indicate they hold immediately available stock to send to any customer.

I think it's a deliberate effort on behalf of all parties involved ( Sony, Ninty and MS) to move you, the gamer, away from digital with stories like this. The trouble is people who buy digital as their main source of games are fooling themselves if they think what they are doing is anything but medium term rental with no guarantee of longevity. Buy physical folks. You won't realise what you've lost until it's gone. You stick with digital you're either doing it by blind loyalty, total ignorance of the truth or worse just plain stupidity.
Think about it ...why ARE the companies pushing digital so hard ? Are these companies your friends ? The answer to that is simple ...no they are not....you are a profit margin on their spreadsheet nothing more. Do not delude yourselves any further.

@Dr-zoidburg I'd say they're cheaper than digital copies because if it was the other way around, then physical would sell even less and that would be bad for business. As it is, people have more incentive to buy physical, since if it's just dusting on the shelves, it's profit loss.

I bet that stat also includes digital only game.
I would like to see the percantages for games that have both a physical and digital release only. I'm convinced that number will me much greater than 4%

I still buy physical games but most games I play are digital purely because of all the games on Playstation Plus Extra.

If it wasn't for that, I've buy even more physical games as you can trade them in at places like CEX and recoup some of the outlay - something you obviously can't do with digital games.

The writing's on the wall.

@MikeOrator Those PS3 games can be played on a PS3 so no you haven't lost access to them. You only lose access to your Wii games if you lose the Wii. You haven't give me a real example as its clear i'm on about PS4/PS5, Switch, PC and X1/Series and not consoles dating back to a time where everyone was still learning how to do digital.

I still buy all games physically when I am able to. Hell, it’s the reason I’ve been debating on importing Baldurs Gate 3.

I'm at the point where it's physical for RPGs, and digital for almost everything else.

The major shift for me is that I now play a lot more of my physical collection and buy far fewer games than I used to in general because of the digital shift, so I imagine this is also affecting physical sales if other physical collectors are similar to me.

I still buy Nintendo published games on release, as I know that the game will at least be playable as physical media in the future and generally release in a good state. However, with PlayStation games in general and especially digital only releases like Alan Wake 2 and Balder's Gate 3 I just think I'll wait until I actually want to play it. This also means I get the games cheaper and patched in a better state, ideally as a physical game of the year edition.

I do wonder if I'm a complete outlier in this regard as well as a gaming fossil fogey. Either way, it's becoming clear that game players / collectors like me are on the way out. At least I'll finally get to see if I was right about prices of physical games going through the roof when the publishers start gouging us after they finally get complete control over game prices.

I love Physical games, they go on sale more often than digital games and you can sell physical games if you have no interest of playing the game again once you played it

Been saying this for a long time now, the physical only types are dinosaurs.

@MikeOrator Awesome thank you buddy, seems like a bargain price too!

@MikeOrator What goalpost? If you have access to a PS3 and the internet you haven't lost your games and in fact PS1/PSP purchases even carry over to PS4/5. As for the Wii again if you kept the Wii you made the purchases on and it still works then you're fine, end of the day though you're trying to use primitive tech and services as an argument and the Wii argument is void when Nintendo have actual accounts with the Switch meaning if you lose the Switch you haven't lost the games. You're basically fear mongering because you had a bad experience god knows how long ago with a console that wasn't really designed for digital gaming.

@Geep So I’ve heard! I wish it was like that here. I would definitely buy more physical games.