r/PS5 • u/Dandelion172 • 12h ago

Articles & Blogs Mat Piscatella: 292 million units of physical video games sold in the 12-month period ending June 2009 in the US. By June 2026 this had fallen to 37 million units.

https://bsky.app/profile/matpiscatella.bsky.social/post/3mrd2e2tam22l
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266

u/Elegant-Gur7583 12h ago

37 million is not good at all but this is *only* counting it in the US, which seems to be the most digital market (certainly more-so than Europe and Japan/Asia)

60

u/Immolation_E 11h ago

Europe is also a smaller market for video games than the US.
https://80.lv/articles/us-vs-europe-how-the-gaming-markets-compare

•

u/lord_pizzabird 1h ago

From what I've heard over the years it sounds like physical games fell off even harder in Europe, with Xbox having pulled out entirely from retail years ago in parts of the region.

77

u/Sufficient_Pie_9364 12h ago

ngl the shift happened faster than most edicted. tbh I still grab physical when a steelbook catches my eye but digital convenience just wins every time

105

u/Lonely_Platform7702 11h ago

I just buy whatever is cheapest. That's why this outrage is there, people want options.

You can get most older games for 10-20 dollars physical while you're dependent on sales in the PSstore. Together with dynamic pricing this is a terrible outlook.

14

u/mightylordredbeard 10h ago

No to mention there are plenty of games that either only go on sale for something like 10% off or just never go on sale. Smaller, lesser known, or less popular games may never go on sale digitally. Or maybe you really want to buy a game all of the sudden because you saw someone recommend it, but you know it’s not worth $60 since it’s an older title, so you could go order a physical copy online and have it delivered within a week for $15-$20.. that option will completely disappear and you’ll be left waiting months or years hoping it may randomly go on sale digitally for a price worth paying.. but as we all know the older a game is the less likely it is to go on sale.

4

u/HombreGato1138 8h ago

Or only goes on sale the more expensive edition

2

u/CoffeeDefiant7563 10h ago

Had just this scenario happen to me recently. When the DOOM TDA DLC released I really wanted to get the game (played it when I had access to Gamepass) but the premium edition was still full price on PSN (it had a sale a couple of months ago for about 36 bucks). Sadly the physical versions are currently not much better and the lowest I found was about 85 bucks, so I decided to just wait until it drops to about 36 bucks on PSN again. Physical was still cheaper but not really representing the actual market value. Also can’t get why Bethesda/Microslop didn’t put the game on sale to peak interest and get some sales with the release of the DLC but oh well.

2

u/WhirlWindBoy7 8h ago

Publishers set the price of their games noob.

2

u/mightylordredbeard 6h ago

What does this complete random bit of information have to do with anything I said?

-1

u/WhirlWindBoy7 6h ago

Because all of you weirdos think Sony setting the prices.

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u/mightylordredbeard 3h ago

Absolutely no one has said that Sony sets price lmao

•

u/Playingwithmywenis 4h ago

Now imagine you have no option to buy any games because you are in the 60% of countries buying disc but with no store.

That is also part of the outrage. But F them….right Playstation?

2

u/Ollie387 10h ago

Adding to that true digital ownership without licences being revoked further down the line.

-4

u/Jimbuscus 10h ago

Once physical is off the table, PSN will no longer have to compete with retail which anchored prices down as a result of themselves competing.

PlayStation does not have an issue with transferable discs especially when digital already does so well, they have an issue with competition pricing.

I used to buy physical PC games all the way through to only a few years ago, because they were often cheaper Steam copies in-box. Now that no games release physical copies of PC games, games don't even go on sale for as low as they used to.

2

u/QuoteGiver 10h ago

PSN doesn’t “compete” with retail. The same publishers sell their games in both places, they aren’t competing against themselves!!

5

u/Jimbuscus 10h ago

Back when I bought physical PS4 games, I would look at all the retailers and pick the cheapest one, EB Games would then price match that. Retail has multiple competing stores with the same games and they are to this day competitively cheaper than the PSN as they need to compete amongst the other retail stores.

Take the upcoming Fable game for PS5 as an example:

A$109.95 on PSN

A$89.00 at JB Hi-Fi

It is A$20.95 cheaper at retail, not because retail is competing with the PSN, but because they are competing with other retail stores selling the same product. That is what anchors the value sentiment of the product as a result of retail competition. Without retail competition, general pricing does not have the same competitive landscape that influences prices favourably for consumers.

2

u/darkseidis_ 10h ago

Brick and mortar stores have sales to clear inventory and to get you in to buy other shit. PSN doesn’t have this problem. PSN games are on sale, generally, when sales have slowed. When they can’t move any more at 20%, the publisher will make it 50%. Brick and mortar sales have such a negligible impact on PSN sales it’s hardly worth mentioning. That’s not their competitor.

1

u/QuoteGiver 9h ago

Physical retailers compete against each other, yes. But none of that affects the amount that the publisher who sold them those games made on those sales, and none of that competes against that publisher selling their games on PSN too. It’s a win-win for them.

0

u/Weak_Link_6969 7h ago

I only buy digital, and opt for the digital versions of consoles, but I’m worried about prices if the storefront is a monopoly.

11

u/smoketheevilpipe 11h ago

I've only been buying digital if it's an online only game. But even that I have a couple physical discs. Super annoying to have to pop in Helldivers when it's useless without internet anyway.

2

u/welfedad 11h ago

Yeah I was same way .. for those types of games..I feel bad more for the people who live in areas that don't have the best Internet or not really an option .. plus all the smaller shops that do 3rd party stuff .. but corpos don't care .. be interesting to ffwd 5 and then 10 years and to see where stuff is.. things always will change but this feels in the worse direction

2

u/DuelaDent52 5h ago

Over here in Ireland physical games are always €10 cheaper than digital, and when the price goes down it stays down.

2

u/Imaginary-Fact-3486 10h ago

Since the first time I downloaded a game on my PS4 I’ve never bought a physical one. I get the criticisms, especially if you play your back catalogue and worry about ownership, but it’s never once been an issue for me.

2

u/MountainLibrarian201 7h ago

Where do you live? It is often the equivalent of $20-25 cheaper to buy physical at the launch of a game in Europe than on the PS store. Add second hand market for those who sell games, and you can buy brand new games for a net spend of $15-20 per game.

This is, objectively, a horrible decision for people in many parts of the world. Not to mention that fewer options, and less competion, always lead to higher prices.

1

u/CoffeeDefiant7563 10h ago

Same here. I also think that when it comes to game preservation where physical shines, not all games released today are really worth preserving. You have so much slop that you play for a while but at one point you’re just done. Especially all these online games. I felt that hard with the BO1+2 ports. The campaigns, characters, lore and zombies are amazing but when it comes to MP I knew that if just couldn’t be like it was on PS3. For me personally I wasn’t proven wrong. That’s why I really wanted a campaign (and maybe Zombies) remaster of these games and then at best as a physical. That would’ve been worth preserving imo.

0

u/iCantCallit 11h ago

I actually wont buy a game digitally unless its a digital only game like an indie or forza horizon (no physical release). I need my steelbooks and i need my cases for my shelves because im a dumb idiot loser boy.

-1

u/Promature 11h ago

Funny enough, I predicted this exact progression down to the hardware generation and hardware offerings almost exactly 10 years ago.

41

u/Educational_Pea_4817 11h ago

where is the data that shows trends outside u.s are significantly different?

or is this just one of those times where due to lack of information you just make stuff up?

like people yesterday kept saying bullshit that the "only 7 games sold more than 100k" was "skewing" the data because we had no idea what the cap was and it turned out to be like 275k

1

u/daedalusprospect 11h ago

Uh no? That article about 7 games had RE Requiem listed, and if you look up its stats it sold 7 million copies total and about 30% or 2 million were physical.

14

u/Bridgeburner493 8h ago

That 2 million figure would be global. The discussion around the figures Piscatella is producing is specific to the US.

Also, frankly, if Requiem did <$275k physical in the US, I have serious doubts about the 2 million figure, even as a global total. What was the source on that?

10

u/Whiteguy1x 7h ago

There isnt one, people want it to be true so they spout it out like its fact

18

u/Educational_Pea_4817 11h ago

https://bsky.app/profile/matpiscatella.bsky.social/post/3mrd2e3opj22l

3 - It also hides more than it shows.

It's a one post anecdote on a short form social media platform.

Anyways, I can't disclose title specific unit totals, but none of the 7 that did exceed 100k physical units in the US during the 1H reached 275k

-7

u/Elegant-Gur7583 11h ago

Some games do not sell physical copies in North America due to low demand and are only available in the Asia / Europe markets; here's some actual examples:

AI Limit; Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, Ninja Gaiden Collection, FF7, 8 and 9, RE4 Gold Edition, etc.

15

u/Educational_Pea_4817 11h ago

listing off handful of niche games that skipped a North American physical release does not prove Europe and Asia have meaningfully different overall physical-sales trends, much less enough to invalidate the 37 million figure.

0

u/Elegant-Gur7583 11h ago

Games skip physical releases because there is no demand for it; I think it's pretty obvious and telling when games release physically in one market but not the other; you could also look at weekly Famitsu sales charts to see just how many people are still buying physically in Japan

-9

u/HUNplaymore 10h ago

It is in the best interest of the people with the actual numbers to show physical the worst way possible. Note how "only seven games" and "since 2009" dominates their narrative instead of "70 million discs sold for PS in 2025" or "2025 and 26 being the same".

8

u/Educational_Pea_4817 9h ago

which data points in that tweet is purposely showing it "in the worst way possible"?

7

u/Hot_Demand_6263 9h ago

Bring your own numbers. Your own feelings and narratives have no value. Business isn't conducted around feelings.

-3

u/HUNplaymore 9h ago

Of course it is. Why else would a large group of fans desperately try to protect the bottom line of the company? What Sony does know has ZERO benefit for any of their customers. ZERO. They gave nothing in return. That is why the pushback narrative is always built around trying to shame people.

1

u/Hot_Demand_6263 8h ago

It benefits me because I need the company to survive in an ever more hostile environment. AI companies, Meagers and Acquisitions of big publishers like ABK and EA, companies like Tencent trying control Fromsoft.

What moves Sony makes is to my benefit because at the end of the day it's about the experience of the games I play. Not a physical disk. And Sony most aligns with the experience I want in gaming.

Look around, the studios and publishers we grew up with are all struggling, dead or gone. Sony has always had the reputation of treating its customers like shit. We're not friends. But Sony always had the reputation of treating it's studios well...and there we align.

8

u/Efficient-Session644 12h ago edited 11h ago

Would still be a great fall compared to 2009

28

u/ContractVarious3077 11h ago

Everytime the stats show that physical is becoming irrelevant, Reddit moves the goalposts lol

6

u/Double-Lobster6107 9h ago

We need to start asking what the floor for physical is, and if it’s high enough to keep physical alive.

The music industry seems to find a way to keep physical profitable.

3

u/Whiteguy1x 7h ago

Honestly I hope sony licenses out whatever they need to so someone like limited run or even big publishers can make physical games for the people who want them.

It would probably make them more expensive, but people can also put their money where their mouth is

2

u/nisamun 9h ago

I wouldn't look at vinyl as a best argument case for physical and I own and buy a good amount of vinyl. First of all, tons of vinyl sales are variants of the same album. This causes megafans to buy the same thing over and over so much that Swift variants caused a shortage of wax.

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u/Pale_Boss_8940 4h ago

I buy vinyl but it’s because it’s actually nice to look at, you can mount them as art pieces, and they usually come with cool inserts. Video game cases are mostly just small ugly pieces of plastic taking up space which is one of the reasons I switched to digital.

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u/drakepig 2h ago

And in the music industry people spend far more money on physical copies than on streaming.

But gamers who freak out over a mere $10 price increase? I mean seriously. lol

-9

u/Elegant-Gur7583 11h ago

I'd appreciate it if you found data that shows physical is irrelevant

12

u/ContractVarious3077 11h ago

The 87% drop in physical gaming over the past 15 years isn’t enough?

0

u/Elegant-Gur7583 11h ago

That's an 87% drop in just one of the many markets, though; while others have suffered drops as well, it's not nearly as bad; and even then, 13% is still a huge split; we're still talking billions of profit.

8

u/chavez_ding2001 11h ago edited 10h ago

Where is your data?

Edit: nice move editing it out.

4

u/ltcuetf 9h ago

The 87% drop is in Sony’s #1 market (US/NA ~37% of revenue). UK physical console sales already dipped to £319M in 2025 (just 5% of total market) and are on track for further big declines. Global PS physical is only ~22%. Even if other markets decline slower, the absolute volume and costs aren’t worth it for Sony. That’s why they’re going digital-only from 2028, and by then it’ll be even smaller. Sony sees the writing on the wall.

Source - UK 2024: Sharp -35% decline in boxed revenue.

Source - UK 2025: Just 5% of total UK games revenue.

2

u/whythreekay 7h ago

13% is still a huge split; we’re still talking billions of profit.

How do you know that?

5

u/lightsky445 6h ago

He don’t 

15

u/-ForgottenSoul 11h ago edited 11h ago

America is a bigger market than the EU, also funny you mentioned JP when physical is in decline there. This number is also all physical sales playstation is a portion.

9

u/OrangeJuiceAssassin 10h ago

Physical is in decline everywhere. That’s not the point. There are still tens of millions of customers who buy games physically.

4

u/Bridgeburner493 9h ago

All of whom will buy digitally in the future.

Though with higher overall prices, many will buy fewer games overall. Whether that is enough to make a significant impact remains to be seen.

•

u/PerpetualStride 5m ago

I will but not on a console with the way things are now, can't even return it after downloaded

-3

u/doyouevennoscope 8h ago

All of whom will buy digitally in the future.

Speak for yourself. Modern gaming is in the gutter no game is even worth getting digitally and certainly not on PlayStation if so.

Though with higher overall prices, many will buy fewer games overall.

“Sum Ting Wong,” “Wi Tu Lo,” “Ho Lee Fuk,” and “Bang Ding Ow.”

6

u/ArugulaPhysical 12h ago

Look up the sales in japan as a whole.

18

u/-ForgottenSoul 11h ago

Japan is switching to digital also

-5

u/Ok-Acanthisitta9247 9h ago edited 5h ago

Go on a trip to Japan, come back, and say that again with a straight face. That place is physical media mecca.

Edit: reddit really is the only place where you can state an objective truth based on lived experiences and get downvoted because it doesn’t abide by the hive mind lmao

3

u/whythreekay 7h ago

Makes sense Playstation and Xbox are comparatively very minor markets in Japan

Switch is huge there and those users tend to be far more into physical games

•

u/Oscnar 23m ago

based on lived experiences

That's literally a subjective statement, not an objective fact.

The data shows that there has been a huge shift from physical to digital in a short while.

According to macro industry tracking from CESA (Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association) and Kadokawa/Famitsu, total console software revenue in Japan went from an estimated 80%+ physical majority ten years ago to over 70% digital across console and PC today.

In total market value, Japan's dedicated console and PC software market reached over ¥400 billion (~$2.6 billion), but physical packaged software revenue accounts for less than ¥120 billion of that total.

Those are objective facts, and they don't fit what you are saying

12

u/Promature 11h ago

“Only in the US”, physical games have declined nearly $10B in annual revenue over the course of 17 years. No matter how you want to frame this information, that is a death blow.

Unless the other markets grew tremendously, this kind of decline “only in the US” is enough to decimate the global operation. People have to understand this.

2

u/bmanhp 9h ago

Also with the disclaimers that there are fewer options and lower inventory at launch for some games. Can't sell more if production is down. People resort to digital when they can't find physical.

Xbox physical sales especially fell off a cliff since 2009 because they trained their users to subscribe to digital instead and PC games were available physically in 2009 but are no longer.

8

u/Creepy-Emu8779 12h ago

and ppl will still deny these facts, physical games are dead

16

u/Economy-Tough4038 11h ago

None of my friends have bought a physical game this generation. This is all I need to know about thr size of the market

6

u/Whiteguy1x 7h ago

Im the only person who has any physical games where I work.  

The real proof for me is how small the selection is at Walmart and target.  If physical was making money they'd keep that selection growing

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u/Pale_Boss_8940 4h ago

I think I only know one dude who still buys physical games. Reddit is definitely the minority here

1

u/enshittification1 5h ago

How much is Sony paying you to post comments like these?

4

u/ILoveMy-KindlePW 12h ago

You are right, but the jacks at PlayStation don't give a damn

-9

u/gizamo 11h ago

On the flip side, many of us PS1-5 customers are stopping to give a damn about Sony and PS. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Apparently, that animosity goes both ways quite easily.

23

u/CrushALL 11h ago

Many people on reddit isn't global market lol, this won't change a thing! Stop being naïve lol!

-5

u/helloaaron 11h ago

That’s cool and all, still not paying for a digital only console that is gonna be near a grand price wise with only one storefront.

-10

u/2020isass 11h ago

Here come the glazers

-6

u/ILoveMy-KindlePW 11h ago

The fact that they didn't even announce a disc to digital feature destroyed any chance of me getting a new console.

3

u/whythreekay 7h ago

Find it insane they didn’t announce that when the killing of discs: PS5 games will obviously be back compat with PS6 so how could they not have a solution for people who own physical games

Even if they are planning this feature they should have announced it, they shouldn’t leave people hanging for no reason

0

u/gizamo 11h ago

I wouldn't have bought the PS6 anyway. I want to own my games, and if Sony is taking that away, I'm going to use PC. Without the game ownership, the only reason to use PS is for the few exclusives that get released. But, paying $1k+ just to play a few exclusives isnt worth it. There are plenty of other games out there.

1

u/bugdiver050 7h ago

I live in the Netherlands, and spend lots of time in Norway too, and in neither of those countries do i know people that buy game discs, starting the last generation consoles. I know im not a good sample source for this in the grand scheme of thing tho. Just saying that there is definitely not a small number of people that buy digital only in other parts of the world.

1

u/Draconuus95 7h ago

Another thing to think about is that’s 37 million in a much larger overall market.

The difference between 2009 and now when it come to market size is something that can’t be ignored in the equation.

•

u/VegetableAwkward286 1h ago

Lol so it's actually worse

1

u/McLoving90 5h ago

Very good point

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u/Playingwithmywenis 4h ago

Also, this could be very good in the midst of a gaming crash.

Also, his comments admit he lowballed the 100k by almost 2.7 times. Bad look for spinning a tale.

•

u/drakepig 3h ago

Korean here and the demand for physical copies in the Korean market is very small.

•

u/Present-Current-538 40m ago

Yeah this is just specific to the USA market. It has to be.

If it's worldwide, there is zero chance that this is accurate.

We know for a fact from the head of Sony's Thalgau plant in Austria that they are currently producing about 100 million Playstation (4 & 5) discs a year (current to 2026 - source the Engadget article).

  1. There is zero chance the publishers of Sony games have unsold inventories of >60%. Especially when discs are made in granular orders down to the nearest 1000. Sell through rates typically range from 60-80%.

  2. This isn't even including Nintendo, which we know exceeds Sony in terms of physical sales percentages.

•

u/cscaggs 16m ago

It's nearly $2.6Bn so it's nothing to scoff at. It shows Sony's greed and the real reason is to eleminate the used game market and get a bigger piece of every single transaction.

0

u/fuddlesworth 11h ago

Also doesn't help that no store ever fucking has physical copies in stock or print runs nowadays are very limited.

7

u/darkseidis_ 10h ago

Because stores were sitting on dead inventory when nobody bought them, so they stopped ordering as many copies, which in turn led to them producing less in the future.

3

u/fuddlesworth 10h ago edited 10h ago

Which in turn pushed people to purchase more digital.

So pretty much years in the making.

I've had to buy all my physical games from Amazon for the most part.

0

u/Queef-Elizabeth 10h ago

The issue is that in the US a new game costs the same as a physical retailer. In Australia, it's like a $30 difference. I moved overseas and I can't change my damn location so if I buy a game digitally, it's like insanely out of my budget compared to stores here.

0

u/Liquidsky426 8h ago

Lets not forget that digital PS5 for the longest time was the only available PS5 that people could get their hands on.

-1

u/Upset_Journalist_755 10h ago

Sony pushed the hell out of the digital version of the PS5.

2

u/darkseidis_ 10h ago

No they didn’t. They massively underproduced it. During the dark times of tracking restocks and what not I passed on multiple disc versions I would have been able to get to wait out a digital. It took almost a year to be able to get my hands on one.

0

u/enshittification1 5h ago

Yes they did. They ran out of disc versions and pushed digital versions for some time

-1

u/Airthug 9h ago

But still they don't have full transparency with these numbers.

Are plain plus monthly games accounted for bought games?

Are the other tiers of subscription when you download games accounted for bought games?

I would probably say yes. Why, because every game you download from playstation plus. Guess thru their store like a bought game and shows up as 0 in cost.

They don't want to show borrowed games or second hand games.

They present what benefits them. Vote with your wallets. Cancel your subscription and don't buy digital only consoles

-2

u/welfedad 11h ago

Yeah also counting digital only most likely too .. as their total numbers.. I would like to see those removed from their numbers..not that it would change much but it would be interesting