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- Leaked data suggest that PlayStation won’t be discontinuing physical discs in the near future.
- 50% or more of the gaming giant’s first-party sales have come in the form of physical copies.
- In certain instances, the divide between physical and digital sales was largely in favor of the former.
Over the past few years, digital media has become more mainstream.
An analysis even revealed that over 83% of console games in 2023 were sold as digital copies. However, PlayStation is seemingly avoiding the trend as its physical sales still go toe-to-toe with its digital figures.
Why it matters: Xbox has shown an intent to shift towards the digital format. Even their upcoming flagship title, Hellblade 2, will be a digital-only release.
According to data from Insomniac Games’ leak, a large percentage of PlayStation’s sales is still reliant on physical discs.
For instance, God of War Ragnarok sold 15 million units in total. Since the data is valid till mid-2023 and Santa Monica reported the 15 million figure in December, we can assume total sales were 2-3 million units behind by June 2023.
Assuming it sold 12 million units by June, the split between physical and digital copies would still come out to be 8 to 4 million. It is important to note that many of God of War Ragnarok’s digital copies were bundled as part of PS5 purchases.
Meanwhile, The Last of Us Part 2 has sold over 10 million units. However, this figure is outdated, and around 6.3 million digital copies were sold by June 2023. In any case, at least 40% of the total copies sold were purchased as physical discs for this game.
A similar trend is seen in Ghost of Tsushima. An average would suggest that nearly half of PlayStation’s first-party sales always come from physical games. However, certain games show that physical sales can be twice as high as digital sales at times.
Physical games still present various advantages that may explain this trend.
They can be resold or exchanged and can also be considered collector’s items. Then you have the peace of mind of owning a game, unlike with digital copies, where you can lose your account and all your money spent on it.
These figures suggest that PlayStation fans have nothing to worry about in terms of a digital-only future.
Sony recently opened a new physical games factory in Brazil that will distribute games across all South American countries, emphasizing the importance of physical media. Note that even the slim version of the PS5 comes with a detachable disc drive.
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News Reporter
Abdullah is an avid gamer who primarily plays single-player titles. If you can’t find him anywhere, he’ll probably be at his desk playing The Witcher 3 for the millionth time. When he isn’t playing games, he’s either reading or writing about them.
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