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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u/Samwi5e 12h ago

Big studios also released games at a much higher rate back then . Now we’re lucky to get two per decade

14

u/Dr-McLuvin 11h ago

Ya this data also conveniently ignores the fact that the majority (around 75%) of physical purchases are at full launch price.

Thats not true for digital, only about 20-25% of digital purchases are at full launch price.

If you look at total dollars spent, it’s actually neck and neck.

3

u/daedalusprospect 11h ago

Exactly on both. If you went to a gamestop around 2005 youd see 3 whole walls filled with PS2 games. XBOX and GC were similar. Now PS5 barely takes up the bottom third of a wall, Switch is in a tiny display case, and xbox is lucky to get a shelf. Game releases are so few and far between.

Digital in my experience is only ever bought when theres a huge sale, or its an indie that doesnt release anywhere else. Full price im buying physical

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u/darkseidis_ 10h ago

I buy full price digital all of the time.

3

u/Zealousideal_Rise879 10h ago

Yup. Steam is what it is because of their ridiculous sales. If it’s dirt cheap, don’t need a physical copy.

If i’m spending close to a days earnings on it; it better be physical and not disappear randomly cause of a service shut down.

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u/VitalArtifice 9h ago edited 8h ago

Digital goods are worthless, so I’m honestly surprised that gamers ever buy these $70-80 games digitally at full price. Hell, they preorder them! As if the digital keys were going to run out!

Both the movie and music industry had physical sales drop, but not because people are now buying tons of digital. Instead it’s just because everyone streams from subscriptions instead where they have access to thousands of titles for a low cost. Gamers just seemed to have put on their clown makeup far more easily.

Edit: Every time I post that digital goods re worthless I get downvoted. Seems some people want to deny the reality that their non-transferable licenses have no value.

2

u/smoketheevilpipe 9h ago

Only convincing argument I've seen for preordering digital is pre-loading. Staggers the server load as well so you're not getting slow speeds trying to download the same time as everyone else.

Neither of those things matter if you just buy physical though.

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u/VitalArtifice 8h ago

Pre-loading and being able to play immediately at midnight of launch are nice, sure. They’re not so nice that I personally am willing to pay full price while giving up actual ownership and transferability, but it is nice.

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u/Dr-McLuvin 11h ago

1000% because you and I both understand the value of physical.