Like It or Not, This Is Why PS5 Pro Doesn't Have a Disc Drive 1
Image: Push Square

Update: Games Industry.biz’s Chris Dring has added to the US data points below with trends in Europe. While the methodology is not identical to the one employed by Mat Piscatella and excludes some countries like the UK, he reports that around 68% of “AA and AAA” PS5 game sales were digital in Europe this year.

That’s slightly lower than in the US, but still a majority, and again it helps to highlight why Sony has opted to ship the PS5 Pro without a disc drive.

Original Article: Circana’s ever-enlightening analyst Mat Piscatella has shared some updated details on digital sales splits in the United States – and they more or less confirm why Sony’s opted to exclude the disc drive from its PS5 Pro console. He reports that from January through August of this year, a whopping 78% of PS5 games were purchased digitally, up 3% year-over-year.

Subscribe to Push Square on YouTube155k
Watch on YouTube

The important detail about Piscatella’s methodology here is that he’s only counting games which have a physical and digital version available; any titles only available digitally are not included. Similarly, if Circana doesn’t receive digital sales data – like in rare instances where publishers don’t disclose it – those games are also excluded.

This gives us a pretty good indicator of the US market overall, then. Piscatella does caution that “this doesn’t represent true demand” as retailers have “been more conservative in its assortments and buys, while publishers have been more aggressive in promoting digital”. We’d argue, though, that if physical copies were flying off the shelves, they’d be plentiful available.

For the sake of comparison, Nintendo Switch through the same period posted a 53% digital split, while Xbox Series X|S tallied an outrageous 91%. It should be noted, again, this only accounts for games sold, so Game Pass downloads don’t contribute to this number. If they did, the digital ratio would be even higher on Xbox.

None of this is to say physical is dead: 22% of PS5’s sales is still a reasonable number, and certainly enough to make printing Blu-rays worthwhile. But it does help illustrate Sony’s thinking when it comes to the PS5 Pro’s optional disc drive: some may say it’s a $100 additional expense, but others who primarily play games from the PS Store could equally argue it’s a $100 saving.

The ratio in favour of digital game sales will likely continue to increase on PS5, but probably not dramatically at this point. Clearly there’s still a market for physical games, and we can’t see it disappearing entirely. We reckon Sony’s solution, to offer an optional disc drive, is quite an elegant response to changing market trends – but clearly not everyone agrees.

[source bsky.app]