cutting physical media cuts costs only for the company. they get to save on production, design, shipping and still charge the same thing with nothing being passed on to the consumer
PLEASE READ AND UNDERSTAND:
We have to talk about the physical vs digital data, A LOT of people still buy Physical games on PS5.
More than you think, like WAY MORE! Please read and understand what Sony is doing it trying to FORCE DIGITAL games! IMO this should not even be legal:
- FY2025 Full Year (Apr 2025 – Mar 2026) = the digital to physical split was 78%/22%.
But this does NOT tell the whole story. Because this is all games sold, not all games that have physical copies and digital! So majority of the 78/22 split don't even have physical, let's look at some real numbers from leaks and stats we have:
From Insomniac Leak:
- God of War Ragnarök: 76% Physical / 24% Digital
- Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga: 63% Physical / 37% Digital
- Astro Bot: 55% Physical / 45% Digital
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: 54% Physical / 46% Digital
- Assassin's Creed Mirage: 49% Physical / 51% Digital
- Resident Evil 4 Remake: 45% Physical / 55% Digital
- Hogwarts Legacy: 44% Physical / 56% Digital
- Star Wars Jedi: Survivor: 40% Physical / 60% Digital
UK / Europe Retail Data (GSD – 2023/2024):
- Astro Bot: 55% Physical (UK) / and 60% Physical (Europe) – 2024
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: 54% Physical (UK) – 2023
- Assassin's Creed Mirage: 49% Physical (UK) – 2023
- Hogwarts Legacy: 45% Physical (UK) – 2023
- Resident Evil 4 Remake: 45% Physical (UK) – 2023
- Horizon Forbidden West: 51% Physical (UK) – 2022
People still buy a lot of physical games on PS5, especially when it's SINGLE PLAYER GAMES. When it's more mp then it goes down to more digital. But please don't just listen to the 78%/22% split, those numbers are overall numbers and don't represent the full story AS YOU CAN CLEARLY SEE!
Because it's not a fair comparison since all games don't have a physical copy or eventually stop printing it. They are trying to paint a narrative to control prices and take ownership from you, that is the truth and spread it!
Did a little research into this "85% of games bought on Playstation are digital". So I decided to look at the EXACT wording of what that meant.
Spoiler: Its not "Out of 100 copies of Spiderman sold, 85% are digital"
Here's how they calculate it.
Digital Units sold, Divided by Total Units sold, times 100.
Straight forward right?
In Q4 of 2025, sony sold 74.6 million units in total, that is both Digital and Physical units.
But the "85% of all games bought are digital" has a HUGE skew to it. Why? Because there are THOUSANDS of DIGITAL only games that do not get a PHYSICAL release. Think the 5$-20$ indie titles or digital only ports of older games.
However, those digital sales are counted AGAINST the physical sales. Meaning? Even if EVERYONE who stopped buying Physical in the past 5 years, went out and bought one game a month? Digital will still dominate physical because (mostly) everything thats physical is also digital, but very little that is digital is also physical.
The Comparison is not fair and when its thrown around on social media its literally framed in a way for the stat to prove how dominant Digital sales are while excluding a number of factors. Doing so would be like comparing Your local Wal-Mart's stock to Amazon.
Not only that, but there are many digital only sales that are held that puts STEEP discounts on games that in-store simply cannot do. Of course there are some games that are on sale in-store that are not on sale digitally, but those digitally only games ALSO go on sale which the retailer has Zero access to because its digital only.
There's also digital incentives where buying the game digitally grants you more content vs buying it in store, driving more sales. Then, there are some games that release digitally, and then have a physical release MONTHS later; or, allow you to play the game a few days early.
If you wanted a more fair comparison? It would be "Digital media with a simultaneous Physical Release vs The Physical Release" Having this stat would reveal the true number. But even THAT number is missing details because that also doesn't include people buying the game second hand/Used from GameStop.
However, while Im sure that stat would STILL benefit digital sales, I would suggest and conclude that it wouldn't be "85%" as many people are suggesting.
Sources:
https://t.co/x93grZtkiS
I completely understand where you’re coming from, but for a lot of gamers physical discs are the only way they could afford to play games because they could get them secondhand. You can also give games to your younger siblings Which is a great way to introduce them to the games you were playing.
Most importantly though, as we saw from PlayStation this past week, if the media we buy is only digital, it can be taken away from us at a moment’s notice with no recourse. Imagine that, one day your entire library of games could be deleted overnight because technically you don’t own it.
@VikiStatus I am pretty sure I was subscribed to Viki Pass Plus as of yesterday. Now I am unable to access to any shows. Already sent a support ticket.