A new survey among gamers has revealed that physical copies of video games are not a relic of the past.
Although the industry is actively promoting the digital format — users still do not forget about disks. According to the report, The Game Business, share of physical sales remains significant, especially on Nintendo Switch. In Europe, almost 80% of copies of games for this platform are sold on physical media.
Even among multi-platform hits, the numbers speak for themselves. In the UK, 45% of copies of Hogwarts Legacy and Resident Evil 4 Remake, as well as 49% of Assassin’s Creed Mirage — are physical. But Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 had a 54% share of physical sales, which means that they outsold digital sales.
Against this background, Astro Bot on PS5 showed interesting results: In Europe, 60% of sales were physical, and in the UK — 55%. This indicates that players are still willing to pick up boxes, especially when it comes to story-driven or family projects.
However, there is another trend: online-oriented games, such as FC 2025 and WWE 2K25, on the other hand, are increasingly being sold in the «digit» range. Their digital sales have increased compared to previous installments, although the overall sales of these series have dipped slightly.
At the same time, it should be noted that 2024 was a difficult year for the physical market. Sales of boxed games on PS5 fell by 800 thousand copies, on Xbox by 300 thousand, and Nintendo Switch lost as many as 1.8 million units sold. This had a serious impact on the overall performance in the physical segment.
Despite the decline, physical media remains important. The answer to this trend is elementary: «It’s more reliable». The conflict between the players of The Crew and Ubisoft immediately comes to mind, as Polygon. The studio shut down the servers of the original game and, as a result, received a lawsuit from dissatisfied players. However, lawyers reminded gamers that purchasing a game ≠ the right to own it, and this is only a temporary license. It is logical that no one will take a physical copy of the game from your library (except for scratches on the disk). But Steam, Epic Games, and other online stores can easily remove the game and no one will think to return the money. A box on a shelf simply gives you a sense of ownership that «number» does not. But on the other hand, — «hardware» and the OO are updated, so the game becomes incompatible over time.
The psychological aspect also plays a role. The story of the recent PSN outage once again reminded us that digital property is not really property. Although access was quickly restored there, it is unlikely that these games will be supported for decades. However, recently, another Xbox gamer accidentally got caught and almost lost a $40,000 game library.
As a result, we have the following situation: gamers continue to buy physical copies when it comes to story or family games. But digital formats have an advantage where online play or quick access is important. Of course, a complete transition to «digital» has not happened, and it is unlikely to happen in the near future. What do you think, is it better to use «digit» or disks?
Source: Tech4Gamers
Spelling error report
The following text will be sent to our editors: