Physical Games Did Not Die by Themselves

In Sony’s Decision to Ditch Discs Was Practically Inevitable, Data Shows, Kyle Orland examines the collapse of physical game sales in the United States.

“Console gamers have overwhelmingly voted with their wallets.”

The decline is impossible to dismiss. Americans bought 297 million physical games during the market’s 2009 peak. During the latest twelve-month period, they bought just 37 million. Spending fell from $11.5 billion to $1.6 billion, and only seven PlayStation releases had sold more than 100,000 physical copies in the United States during 2026. (Ars Technica)

Sony reports that digital downloads now account for 78 percent of full-game PlayStation sales worldwide. Physical media is clearly a minority format. (Ars Technica)

I am less convinced that players simply voted for its elimination.

Publishers spent years making digital purchases easier while making physical ownership less useful. Games launched without discs, consoles shipped without drives, retail shelves shrank, and many discs became little more than installation keys for enormous downloads. Sony also earns more when it controls the store, removes the retailer, prevents resale, and becomes the only practical source for a game.

Customers certainly embraced digital convenience. That does not mean they asked to lose every alternative.

The numbers explain why Sony believes it can abandon discs without sacrificing much revenue. They do not make the decision inevitable, and they do not measure what disappears with the format: lending, resale, retail price competition, preservation, and the ability to keep a game after its publisher loses interest in selling it.

Physical games were declining. Sony still chose to finish them off.

Read Sony’s Decision to Ditch Discs Was Practically Inevitable, Data Shows.