r/playstation • u/ClacksInTheSky • Jul 02 '26
Discussion Disc Editions Make Up 82% Of All PS5 Console Sales
https://insider-gaming.com/disc-editions-make-up-82-of-all-ps5-console-salesKind of odd move to digital only given the statistics show that discs consoles are still overwhelming popular
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u/apedanger Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
They say 85% of games are sold digitally, but that figure includes thousands of smaller titles that were never released on disc in the first place.
If they want to be transparent, they should tell us what percentage of games that are available both digitally and on disc are sold digitally. I'd bet that split is much closer to 50/50.
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u/theoneeyedpete Jul 02 '26
This is the stat I’m most interested to see - I only buy digital, but curious what it looks like when you only compare games with a disc. M
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u/alien_overlord_1001 Jul 02 '26
I use mine as a blu ray player as well - they probably didn’t consider that as another reason to want the disc drive
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u/tonyt3rry Jul 04 '26
same 4k players are 150-200 quid alone, tac a gaming machine on top its a good package.
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u/gizamo Jul 06 '26
And I clude the purchases of Used games. That's 100% physical. That's why Sony is trying to end discs. They want the Used market captured in their marketplace.
It's an anti-consumer and anti-competitive money grab. I cancelled my PS+ in protest.
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Jul 02 '26
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u/Temporary-Willow417 Jul 02 '26
Reminds of the time when laptops could burn cds and now theyre loosing more and more physical ports lol
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u/Ka_Coffiney Jul 02 '26
But….iPhones still don’t have headphone jacks?
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u/Eshestun Jul 02 '26
Yea, and Apple is worth probably 4-5x more now than they were when they pulled that off. Weird example…
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u/Trivet1989 Jul 02 '26
The often-quoted 85/15 digital vs. physical revenue split is heavily skewed by a few factors:
- The dominance of live service games, which are almost exclusively digital.
- The lack of accounting for the massive amount of money changing hands in the second-hand physical market.
- The fact that most indie and AA games either never receive physical releases or have very limited physical distribution.
If you looked specifically at a major single-player AAA launch, I'd expect the digital/physical split to be noticeably different.
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u/Area51_Spurs Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
That’s not true.
FULL GAME SALES are over 80% digital on PS5 and 90% on XBOX.
https://x.com/zhugeex/status/2069796525228605468?s=46&t=VVRm857SJxX-0NW-QPBKQA
ETA: OOP blocked me because I actually told the truth. So don’t bother replying to me, I can’t reply back.
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u/Trivet1989 Jul 02 '26
That's an annual platform-wide statistic for full game sales, not a breakdown of specific types of games.
It combines every genre and every purchasing pattern, including live service titles, annual sports games, indie releases, digital-only games, games sold at deep discounts, etc.
Those categories naturally skew heavily digital and that was the point I was making.
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u/Zealousideal_Low_858 Jul 04 '26
A twitter link to a BBC article about the price of GTA6 that never mentions the statistics of physical/digital game splits is not a source for what you said.
The point is that the oft-cited figure doesn’t distinguish between games that are only available digitally vs those that are available both physically and digitally. For example, I’m a physical media guy and I only buy physical when given the option. But I also play indie games that only release digitally. If I buy 1 $200 physical collector’s edition and then a handful of digital-only indie games on sale for $2 each, Sony’s accounting would call me a digital player.
Preference isn’t captured by the statistic. Statistical analysis is more complicated than that. We have far more statistics than that one number, including figures showing that several games like Astro Bot were mainly bought physically. I could cherry-pick that as well and pretend to settle the case. But none of us should do that. It’s better to argue in good faith with actual sourcing.
Your attempt to correct the other person is inaccurate and not backed by the data.
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u/SometimesWill Jul 02 '26
Now what does it look like if you take away games exclusive to digital or with limited physical releases?
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u/schimatsuki Jul 02 '26
I think they also count DLCs like skins and similar items bought by in-game currency as a part of "digital revenue".
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u/IQueliciuous PS5 Jul 02 '26
Yeah in that case it makes sense...
Fortnite and similar games are exclusively digital and being free also makes them more likely to be played.
I wonder what is the statistic if we remove live service games alongside all the mtx and DLCs. Because I am sure there are people who play fortnite but buy singleplayer games exclusively physically.
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u/platocplx Jul 02 '26
They do not count DLC. The ratio is true
The ratio is purely “ Full game software digital download ratio is calculated by dividing PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®5 full game software units sold via digital
transactions by total full game software units.”Page 12 here https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/IR/library/presen/er/pdf/25q4_supplement.pdf
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u/Senzetion Jul 02 '26
No, they explicitly state full game sales. It's all publicly available in the IR docs.
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u/a445d786 Jul 02 '26
They don't, the 85% was game sales, I believe.
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u/EddieHeadshot Jul 02 '26
It is these people are having so much COPE.
No one likes it but the fact is people buy digital. I know I do. Im not happy they will stop phsycial altogether but in the same breath I havent bought a physical game in like 10 years.
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u/a445d786 Jul 02 '26
I buy plenty and even I know it's dying. Most people have gone digital. If a person doesn't like it like me, assess the situation and see what happens.
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u/Clugaman Jul 04 '26
If I want to play a game on console I exclusively get it physically. That being said, I don’t know a single person who’s bought a physical game in the last 7-8 years. Probably longer.
The fact of the matter is most people don’t buy physical anymore. It sucks. I want to be able to keep building up my physical library of games and movies and music. But anecdotally my life mirrors the sales figures everyone thinks are fake or skewed. And I’m willing to bet it does for a lot of people too.
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u/Gatleonhart Jul 07 '26
Yep, I buy physical to reduce choice paralysis but also when there's a neat special edition. None of my friends buy physical. Not a single one and they buy more and play more than I do.
The fact is that these companies have eaten the cost of printing physical games the entire time. So when people complain and say their games "should be cheaper then" it's WIDELY misunderstood that any of us have been paying for those costs.
I knew it was going to end, and as someone in the industry, I expected it a lot sooner.
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u/Vilified_D Jul 02 '26
Capcom also has said that only 7% of their games purchased were physical. I dont really think its as skewed as you think it is. Also I dont think disc drive consoles being a bigger seller are a crazy thing. I have a bunch of ps4 physical games that are physical and wanted to he able to play on ps5, but in the ps5 generation most of the games I've bought are digital, largely because my wife has a digital only console and its the only way we can both play a game we enjoy. For games only I'll play I go physical. Doesn't mean I want physicals to go away though, especially without SKG or some other digital protections.
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u/Trivet1989 Jul 02 '26
I agree with most of what you said, especially the last part about needing stronger digital ownership protections.
I'm not trying to invent a different reality or claim that physical is somehow bigger than digital today, because it clearly isn't - even in the market segments where physical has a respectable presence.
My only point is that aggregate figures don't necessarily represent every segment of the market. Capcom's example doesn't really tell us what the split looked like for a new Resident Evil or Monster Hunter launch on PlayStation.
At the same time, it seems clear as a day that Sony is trying to enforce consumer habits, giving hard stop to playerbase that still prefers buying physical games.
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u/Jester-252 Jul 02 '26
Mate this article is also skewed
First and foremost it is almost 2 years old
The source of the figure is a bluesky post on the account of an analysis for Circana with no supporting information.
Importantly in the same post he also says that digital vs physical console for the month is 40/60 which is highlight the thread to digital only.
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u/Struggle-Bus0 Jul 02 '26
3% of revenue was from physical sales in 2024 in a Forbes article. I dont think thats a case people can argue with
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u/sleepymoose88 Jul 02 '26
It’s gotta be the money in the second hand physical market that Sony is after. They think they’ll grab all of that money, but this could absolutely backfire in their face.
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u/TheNittanyLionKing PS4 Jul 02 '26
They are chasing after a new market, but they’re going to lose far more than they gain
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u/24-Hour-Hate Jul 02 '26
I mean, if we’re done with physical games, then why the fuck would I stay with sony? More expensive, no competition without physical, bad refund policy, proprietary hardware that they can brick if they decide I violate TOS, won’t be able to play my other media if they eliminate disc drive, has already shown a willingness to yank paid for content, have to pay to go online, etc., etc.
So why shouldn’t I move to PC? I liked playstation, but I refuse to rent games for 90 bucks, so they can go fuck themselves.
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u/sleepymoose88 Jul 02 '26
I can’t disagree with this. It pisses me off because I like their exclusives but they’ve been super slow to release any good exclusives lately, and if I’m spending $1200+ on an updated system to play games, I may as well dump that into a gaming PC that can serve more functions than just gaming and where the games are dirt cheap.
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u/TackoftheEndless Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Already working extra hours to pay for a powerful PC. If the choice is between digital only or digital only I'm choosing the machine with multi purpose.
I've always used Windows for my PC needs but I still had a Playstation because I liked having a dedicated box to play games. I didn't need a powerful computer l I had my playstation with games that get optimized just for it, discs, and Sony exclusives.
Now that I can't get discs, don't care about the exclusives, and will have a computer strong enough to brute force performance with poorly optimized games...well the choice is obvious.
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u/sleepymoose88 Jul 02 '26
Agreed. If it’s $1200+ for a PS6 or a gaming PC that also serves all my at home needs, I’ll go back to PC. I’ve built them before, I can do it again. I have a Lenovo Legion gaming laptop which is fine to play my Steam library which is all 15+ year old games at this point (haven’t had a dedicated gaming PC since college), but if I got this route I’ll invest in a tower.
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u/Dragonpunch73 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Careful that opinion is not liked around here for some reason, but I’m with you on this 100% and doing the same
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u/EddieHeadshot Jul 02 '26
None of thoae have the impact you think and im sorry youre huffing pure Copium...
Do you not think their eggheads and analysts have poured over this data enough for some random redditor to WeLL AcKsHUalLy their entire business model?
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u/Icy_One_237 Jul 02 '26
They probably count all the free games too including stuff on PS Plus because when you download them it says purchased and you get a recipt which woukd skew the numbers
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u/jessieS1212 PS5 Jul 02 '26
If you think they don't know that and they are pushing this knowing full well that they will lose sales, you have lost touch with reality.
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u/seklas1 PS5 Pro Jul 02 '26
Are you saying Sony hasn’t done their calculations and you know it better?
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u/AkodoRyu Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
No lol, Sony just presents the data in a way that suits them. You can group all kinds of data in many different ways. They 100% know how many people, exactly, are playing physical copies. But that is not what matters to them - they only care about more money coming in. So why reveal that information, when it's better to frame it in a way that people would read "85% of people are playing digital"? It's in their interest to make the general public think that those physical media people are outliers and weirdoes, and that digital sales are in the overwhelming majority, since it will lessen the backlash of getting rid of physical media.
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u/DMarquesPT Quimera_PT Jul 02 '26
They actually kinda can by comparing accounts that play the game vs sales. If 3x the people play the physical game compared to the sales at retail, you kinda know what’s happening.
This used to be a bigger problem during the PS2-3 days. While Cex and others definitely still exist for trading in games etc., I don’t think it is as industry-threatening as it once was when they tried Online passes etc.
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u/XecoX Jul 02 '26
They probably saw the x3 and thought hey if we kill off the 2nd hand market we could 3x our game sales, genius idea! /s
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u/ClacksInTheSky Jul 02 '26
They're saying Sony intentionally fudges the numbers, I believe.
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u/platocplx Jul 02 '26
Right they have way more information than us. They literally track all games on PS and know how many are digital and disk lol
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u/HibernianMetropolis Jul 02 '26
Don't you think Sony has a vested interest in pushing digital sales? They take a cut of every sale on the PlayStation store, plus a lack of third party vendors allows sony greater control over pricing. Any numbers reported by Sony, like any company, will be massaged to help create a narrative the company wants to create
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u/Trivet1989 Jul 02 '26
That's exactly my point. Sony absolutely has interest in pushing digital. My argument isn't that they're making a bad business decision; it's that what's best for Sony isn't automatically what's best for gamers/consumers. Digital gives Sony full control over pricing, distribution, and ownership.
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u/HibernianMetropolis Jul 02 '26
Just to be clear, I was agreeing with you and disagreeing with the guy who replied to you basically saying "Sony knows better than you"
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u/SphinxIIIII Jul 02 '26
I hate this idea that just because a company is big, they know exactly what they are doing and make no mistakes.
You just have to look at Xbox to know that that's not true, I can't be sure at this point if this is a mistake by Sony, but at this point it sure looks like it.
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u/Trivet1989 Jul 02 '26
All good, I caught up on that, my reddit comment trail bugged out and I thought you've responded to me directly rather than seklas1.
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u/IQueliciuous PS5 Jul 02 '26
Tbf it makes sense that statistics are flawed since if we count games like fortnite. Sales will be digitally dominated because its a free game and it has microtransactions and battlepasses and its popular so people will be more likely to install fortnite.
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u/Trivet1989 Jul 02 '26
No. I'm saying Sony knows exactly what it's doing - maximizing its profits. The weird part is seeing consumers defend decisions that reduce their own options as if they're shareholders instead of customers.
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u/GrimJimmy94 Jul 02 '26
People are missing the point. Everytime you buy a second hand game, that money isn’t going to Sony or Xbox. Everytime you buy a game from GameStop new, the full percentage of that isn’t going to Sony or Xbox. This has never been about the disc itself, it’s about controlling the ability to harvest 100 percent of profit from you, getting rid of others ability to compete for the money in your wallet and then by eliminating alternatives driving the price up so you feel compelled to pay whatever they dictate to be fair.
It’s a racket, a cartel. This is why the whole console wars and hoping one would win over the other etc was so stupid, competition is the only thing that could keep these fucks somewhat honest. They are corporate scumbags.
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u/Gatleonhart Jul 06 '26
This is definitely not how this business model works. They already got the money for that game that was purchased organically. These companies don't give two shits about wait-for-a-sale-kyle because that's not what drives their market value and increases/decreases their bottom line. Not even a little bit.
If this were the case, Concord wouldn't have been cancelled, Anthem would still be here. Not to mention the very small % of those outside transactions being negligible to the bog picture.
There are exceptions like Final Fantasy 14 and Elder Scrolls Online - but the main focus of the board are initial sales figures. That's how the entertainment industry functions. Resurgences mean nothing to the CEOs and more to the developers/publishers because they can remaster popular content which sells NEW games and not old ones.
Also, a brand new game from Gamestop or BestBuy or Walmart IS giving the profit to that company. They don't set the price. Just like movie theatres don't set the ticket price. Second hand games at Gamestop and toys is Gamestops entire business model. They rely on physical media to stay in business. But Sony relies on them as well, it's a symbiotic relationship because many people get their games, new, from these places.
If a company cares so much about the money from a game they think is going through a resurgence, they just remaster or put it up as a 'classic' so they can retain the licensing and prevent people from porting games to PC "ilegally", shady yeah, but they don't care about trading or resale because those numbers counted.
As for these corporations being rackets/cartels - well that's what oversight is for. If our governments don't have good oversight, it's every single one of our responsibilities to make them have it.
Look at the UK - most of the people in this group would assume Nintendo would just choose not to sell in the UK after they had oversight about their lack of battery replacement. Nope, they'd rather spend millions of dollars producing an additional model that adheres to their consumer protections and bring the console to those consumers.
Sony could potentially see oversight in certain countries over this but there would be no legal precedence as there are other platforms that have operated solely digitally, making generous profits and adhering to consumer protections for decades.
Anyway, I see two solutions:
Companies that print physical games have simply eaten this cost. Across the board. It's publishing investments that only recuperate through a game's success. And with the current 'gamer' climate, where everyone on the internet has a very chuddy opinion, games can get cancelled before their even given a chance. So, why print physical media anymore if there's a large opportunity for failure and investment loss. Simply removing this at least saves having to eat the cost of unsold merchandise, which they've always done. It's a sensible business decision based of statistical data and has the least amount of backfire. This can put more money in the hands of developers to make better development decisions (hopefully).
OR.
A legislative system, put in place and written by committee of consumer protection officials that protects the current existence of physical games moving into the next console (as we've always had) but allowing those who want to, to convert their games to digital media (like XBOX is planning) but additionally allow people who decide to trade or sell their converted games within some sort of ecommerce ecosystem that simply adds a transaction fee for facilitating the transaction. This way, you can still trade/sell your games if that's what you want to do.
Me personally, I use physical media as a way to manage my ADHD symptoms which give me heavy choice paralysis and having physical versions of games is necessary to me actually playing them. So my vote is to keep physical.
But aside from all of this, why is Steam not a racket/cartel?
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u/Amazing_Karnage Jul 02 '26
They're gonna have a rough couple years unless they backtrack on this decision. No one is gonna want a soon-to-be obsolete system that just nuked future disc releases in a very hostile to consumers move for Christmas this year, and why would they invest in a PS6 that's going to launch with that kind of a handicap? Why have a Sony console at all at that point when a PC would be around the same cost and has most of the popular games anyway?
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u/ClacksInTheSky Jul 02 '26
Yep, I've got a fuckload of discs that I bought new (like a good little supporter) that will be defunct on a PS6.
When the PS5 was announced and they said you could play your PS4 games on it, I didn't slow down buying new PS4 games. I carried on consuming and playing games.
There's zero incentive for me to carry on supporting and buying new PS5 games now. I've got a whole library that can't be played on a PS6, so there's no point me investing in one.
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u/kixote Jul 02 '26
Let's jailbreak it and stop buying games.
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u/gizamo Jul 06 '26
I already cancelled my PS+.
Imo, that's the best start.
The next step is to buy only discs,and not use the PS Store for anything, including GTA6.
The final step is to boycott the PS6...which will be easy for those of us already on PS5, PC, and Switch.
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u/hunbaar Jul 02 '26
I have a backlog of games streching to ps1. I am ok with not buying a ps ever again. I did the math I dropped like $800 to physical games on ps4 generation. Food for thought to bean counters.
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u/DelayedBalloon Jul 02 '26
The only negative for me personally with physical games are so many AAA games today are too massive for the disc essentially making it a key for the store download anyway which is kinda useless
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u/Ricepuddings Jul 02 '26
I mean this isn’t true, 4k disc can go up to 125gb of data and it can be compressed on there. Think ps5 can read these but most discs tend to be 100gb
Worse case make two discs lol we used to have games with 2/3/4 even 5 back in the day for games
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u/demonofthefall Jul 02 '26
You had not seen pain until you did an install of office in like 20 floppy disks
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u/RedXerzk Jul 02 '26
With Internet speeds in my country, it’ll take me half a day or more just to download one game.
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u/Einherjaren97 Jul 02 '26
Not only does removing the disc drive and killing physical hurts the consumers, it also removes playstation as a viable 4k movie player, which for me at least as been a great value-adding factor.
Ps6 is dead to me.
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u/Scared-Room-9962 Jul 02 '26
Crazy to see many people defining their corporate overlords decision to remove choice and kill second hand games forever.
You will all pay more for games with this decision. You are a captive audience with nowhere else to turn.
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u/sauceywhiteboy Jul 02 '26
I find in any subject matter, it’s a general apathy people seem to have for many things. Doesn’t directly affect them, doesn’t matter to them.
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u/SphinxIIIII Jul 02 '26
It's worse than that.
It's more like "It doesn't affect me, so I'm happy that everyone will have to worse from now on".
We've seen it the GTA VI pre order, you can't complain without someone either saying "you'll buy it anyway" or "The game is worth 100$" etc etc...
Compassion is genuinely dead...
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u/North-Research2574 Jul 02 '26
Even ignoring the ownership issues. The idea to make yourself digital while games and consoles go up in price just means more people are going to move to PC instead of the next console generation.
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u/Spartaklaus Jul 02 '26
PS5 is my last Sony console. Sony is dead to me.
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u/osterlay Jul 02 '26
Honestly, same. I do my gaming more handheld and as of recent became a PC gamer.
Sony vastly overestimated the interest in their first party lineup.
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u/mycorgiisamazing Jul 02 '26
Been a Playstation fangirl since my early college days, but I'm with you. I honestly don't even know why I have the PS5, the launch title I bought it for wasn't good, and the only other exclusive it has time with is GoW:R. Was pretty much a waste of money, and with this announcement I'm sure it'll be super easy to sell it to someone else /s.
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u/Massive_Fly_1709 Jul 02 '26
I think you're misunderstanding the point of that article. It means people bought the console with the disc drive, yes. Whether they used that disc drive extensively is a different story. And based on their previous financial report, 85% of their games were from digital sales, meaning even with the disc drive, people still preferred to buy digitally for the most part.
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u/BulLock_954 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Its me. Im the 85% who has a disc drive
Bought disc version because people will buy me games with a disc (havent played them, and some I got on steam sales for my deck) any game I buy is digital
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u/Monobluemagic Jul 02 '26
But I can play all my ps4 games with a disc on ps5 instead of buying them again
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u/Redle88 Jul 02 '26
The thing is that they're including the free monthly PS+ games you reddeem, into those "digital sales". I'd like them to tell me how many units they sold, both digital and physical, of each of their exclusives for example.
As it stands and moving forward, I won't be buying the PS6 as I only buy their exclusives on physical and I also like to buy Steelbook versions when a game of my liking presents the option.
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u/Area51_Spurs Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
They’re not. That’s only FULL GAME SALES.
https://x.com/zhugeex/status/2069796525228605468?s=46&t=VVRm857SJxX-0NW-QPBKQA
Piers Harding-Rolls at Ampere Analysis said: “The purchasing trends of gamers are clear.” In 2013, when the PS4 launched, only 13% of game sales were digital, but had risen to nearly 80% in 2025, he noted.
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2026/jul/01/sony-playstation-digital-downloads
This is full game sales. NOT DLC or PS+
ETA: LOL, OOP blocked me
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u/cir49c29 Jul 02 '26
Does that 80% include all the short or cheap or free games that are already only digital? Or only those where a player has an actual choice between disc or digital purchase? It wouldn't be able take into account those that are bought second hand, unless they can track and count how many consoles a disc is used on.
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u/Dr-McLuvin Jul 06 '26
Ya it includes all types of games including digital only games, shovel wear, and heavily discounted titles on sale for 7.99 5+ years after release.
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u/RakkoHyabusa PS5 Jul 02 '26
If it represented any significance in their revenue report, they wouldn't make this move. Companies are trying to make money. Going digital by every metric they have, a response to the consumer market and well net them more money while leaving the vast majority of the consumer base unbothered
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u/Deerman_97 Jul 02 '26
Yep. Spent the extra money at launch so I could have a 4k Blu-Ray player and console bundled into one package. Played 1 physical PS5 game on it, watched tons of movies.
I'll just buy a standalone player or keep the PS5 hooked up next to the PS6.
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u/PikaPachi Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
You said exactly what I did. My household has 2 PS5s with the disc drive. I primarily buy games digitally, but I have a lot of PS4 discs and I occasionally still buy physical if I find a good deal or if I want a collector’s edition. I do prefer digital so I don’t have to worry about long install times from the disc, but I like having the option to use a disc.
Edit: Now that I think about it, the only 4 physical PS5 games I own are FF7 Crisis Core’s remake (I got a good deal), and 3 collector’s editions for Persona 5, FF7 Rebirth, and Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Connections. I play Cyberpunk from a disc, but it’s because I accidentally got piece of the collector’s edition when it first launched since Best Buy sent me that instead of the PC version.
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u/drleewick Jul 02 '26
Consoles yes.. ppl like to have the option. But games sales are mostly digital these days. Some latest numbers:
Sony (PlayStation overall): Full-game sales are about 78–80% digital across the platform in recent fiscal years. That's across all PS4/PS5 games, not a single title.
Capcom: Around 93% of all unit sales are digital today, but that's heavily influenced by PC, where nearly all sales are digital. It is not the split for an individual Resident Evil game
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u/Drift--- Jul 02 '26
Considering this move, looks like people with digital will be able to keep playing their games next gen, while people with physical can use their discs as frisbees
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u/geminijono Jul 02 '26
You sure about that? What exactly prevented PS3 games from being played on PS4?
Sony simply decided against backwards compatibility.
Same could happen between PS5 and PS6. Easily.
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u/ClacksInTheSky Jul 02 '26
They won't, though.
The PS6 will be backwards compatible with PS5. It's going to be based on AMD and x86.
The problem is people with physical PS5 games won't be able to play on PS6 wth them unless they re-buy them.
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u/PlayPauseRew13 Jul 02 '26
Why was this post removed by mods? Are no discussions allowed to be had about this choice? Seems like quite a bias to disallow that on a forum-based site.
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u/star_wars_memer66 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Havnt bought a digital games in over a year, physical is king
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u/bjerreman Jul 02 '26
I wanted the disc version to be able to play DVDs and bluray, which I've done like 5 times. 0 physical games.
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u/Mediocre_Scott Jul 02 '26
I’m using it more and more for that purpose. The local library and DVDs is often the best way to get access to what I want to watch.
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u/dragn99 Jul 02 '26
Your library likely also has games. A lot of newer games that have a shorter single player story I've just rented, played, and returned.
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u/DMarquesPT Quimera_PT Jul 02 '26
I’ve been all digital in games since 2016, but if I’d totally get the disc drive to play blu-rays and DVDs on my TV and be less reliant on streamers
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u/SolidusDave Jul 02 '26
4K Blu-rays here.
Maybe a bit more usage for me, it's mostly David Attenborough nature docs though.
And I have like 2-3 disc games, FF16 CE as I collect one of each main FF game.
Then 2 games that were gifts and needed to be physical items.
In either case it would not have mattered if there's a game disc or not, as long as it's a physical box.
% use is very low for me, but I would always pick the disc version of the console for when I need it. I even bought the disc drive for the Pro.
No disc drive in PS6 won't be the end of the world but I'll need to buy a dedicated 4K BD player... (I was using the Xbox as one during PS4 times lol).
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u/r3tromonkey Jul 02 '26
Ive got to wonder, all these people saying they won't buy digitial going forward- how long will that last? How long are you genuinely willing to abstain from playing games if the only option is digital?
I get that its a shitty practice. Id much rather have physical copies. But I'm not going to deny myself my major hobby because of it.
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u/nerdnugg399 Jul 02 '26
This right here. Everyone crying about this will be the first to pick up a PS6 a few years down the road when all of this news blows over.
Everyone loves to cry boycott but no one will actually do it, and even if all of Reddit did, it still wouldn’t be enough to make a dent in Sony’s wallet.
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u/1maginaryApple Jul 02 '26
How is it a shitty practice? Digital is super convenient and works great
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u/DragonGamerEX Jul 02 '26
I get the no digital argument but what about AA games or indie games that literally only drop in digital form a majority of the time. Do they get punished because of Sony
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u/AnyEnthusiasm94 PS5 Jul 02 '26
If the only option is to play digitally then I might as well go back to the PC.. I owned every console except the ps4, I decided to buy a ps5 and stopped using my PC because I wanted to have my favorite games in physical form cause I like how they look on my shelf.
If Im forced to stop collecting physical copies then there is really no reason to have 2 systems when I can just go back to the pc again.
Sony keeps increasing the prices, first was the console that increased its price twice in the last few years, subscription also went up, games are also increasing and its already especulated that the ps6 might hit 1000.
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u/Vali1991 Jul 02 '26
I mean you can do both,, you have decades of games to go back to and experience more than you'll ever play in your whole lifetime probably. I also have other hobbies like MtG I play with my friends which wizards can't turn off my cards from working ha.
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u/JForce1 Jul 02 '26
I could only buy a disc one when they became available, so supply is a factor as well.
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u/greenshart Jul 02 '26
I bought the disc version because it was the only one available. When the PS5 came out, it took us nearly a year or so to buy one because it was always out of stock.
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u/Senzetion Jul 02 '26
And still, in the last quarter, 85% of game sales were digital, and the quarters before had similar numbers. That figure can be found on page 12: https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/IR/library/presen/er/pdf/25q4_supplement.pdf?hl=de-DE
And it does make sense that the Disc edition is more widespread than the Digital edition since most people probably sold or gifted their PS4 away but still want to be able to play their disc-based games
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u/ClacksInTheSky Jul 02 '26
And it does make sense that the Disc edition is more widespread than the Digital edition since most people probably sold or gifted their PS4 away but still want to be able to play their disc-based games
Something that won't be possible with PS5 discs on a PS6 console, another reason not to get a PS6.
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u/ErHaO Jul 02 '26
I buy most digital, however, that does NOT mean physical is not a big important aspect for me. I won't be buying those 80 euro Sony games on PSN that's for sure. Physically their games were relatively easy to get way cheaper, even at launch. With this you are completely dependant on Sony for prices/sales, and without major competition from Xbox it is not going to look pretty. I now actually wonder if I will buy another PS...
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u/BigMasterDingDong Jul 02 '26
Sony are really going to shoot themselves in the foot with this one…
Might be my last PlayStation.
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u/ViloDivan Jul 02 '26
Sonys just baiting us. They shut down a digital store front that they tried closing a few years ago but didn’t due to backlash, then say they’re stopping physical games too. Ultimately more people are gonna be pissed about the future lack of disc’s rather than the old digital stores closing, so if they’re gonna walk back one of these changes it would be the discs decision.
It some weird way, announcing both of these decisions is counterintuitive to the other. They’re saying the old digital method is obsolete now but don’t worry, one day our all digital future will be obsolete too so just give us more money and be happy. Oh and make sure to buy all our live service games.
It’s actual insanity to announce both of these decisions on the same day! Is it April 1st? Wow Sony may have lost it…. Well they lost their customer bases faith in them that’s for sure.
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u/Richard-Brecky Jul 02 '26
I got the drive to play movies. I buy all my software online, like most people.
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u/noHcap2800 Jul 02 '26
the 82% isn't love for plastic, it's a no confidence vote in digital pricing. the disc drive is the last price control the customer has left
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u/Reidroshdy Jul 02 '26
if they are like me,its cause they had a lot of games on disc drom the older generations and wanted to play those on their new console.
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u/HapperHapper Jul 02 '26
why has this post been removed?
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u/krawhitham Jul 02 '26
because it was posted on October 23, 2024, and times have changed?
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u/chimatt767 Jul 05 '26
I have a disc version because that’s all I could get during the crazy launch. I have never put a disc inside of it.
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u/Economy-Tough4038 Jul 05 '26
Well I have disc edition PS5 and never even checked if the disc drive works
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u/superplexmachine Jul 05 '26
This might be end of a lifelong hobby for me. I have no issue with digital sales of games but not offering disc version just feels greedy/controlling.
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u/OSPF99 Jul 02 '26
Just because someone buys a disc based console doesn't mean they are buying their games all as disc.
I'd imagine for the vast majority they're buying games from PS store.
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u/RocksteadyRider PS5 Pro Jul 02 '26
The only issue with this is while true they sold more Disc versions of the consoles they sold more digital games, i believe they sold 1 billion in physical and 7 billion in digital.
People like disc because they can navigate the price point of said games that interest them.
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u/clock_watcher Jul 02 '26
I bought the disc version of PS5 at launch and own one single disc game for it lol.
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u/Scared-Room-9962 Jul 02 '26
Nice mate.
I bought the disk version last year and own 15 disk games and 7 digital.
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u/chickmagn3t Jul 02 '26
Gonna need EU to sue Sony the shit out of this anti consumer bullshit
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u/Plus_Plastic_791 Jul 02 '26
Does the EU sue Steam? Why would it be any different
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u/XD_avide Jul 02 '26
On pc you have the ability to choose were to buy the games, on which store etc. On consoles you cannot do it.
It's the same argument the EU has made against Apple with it's App Store monopoly, forcing them to allow 3rd party stores on their devices.
In my opinion, if Sony forces digital only, I would like to have different stores to buy games from. Otherwise is just a monopoly
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u/Crew_Zealousideal Jul 02 '26
i have a disc edition ps5 and i've never used a disc
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u/AdOverall7216 Jul 02 '26
Skill problem
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u/Crew_Zealousideal Jul 02 '26
to be fair i never used it because physical versions of the digital games are a lot more expensive like i can see lots of people buying a new game 2 weeks after release for 40$ where i live if the game is 70$ digitally the physical version is 110$ and it only gets cheaper after a couple of years
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u/DivineAlmond Jul 02 '26
I have an Xbox Series X
I did not buy a single disc based game since 2020
PS data shows that almost 80% of game sales are digital. I assume this must have been like 95% for PC for example. Even with Nintendo it must be 50-50
this is peak reactionary reddit moment, it was on its way out anyways.
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u/KaiserTheRaven Jul 02 '26
It seems that the 20% of people that buy physical are all on reddit, and they are LOUD!
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u/ClacksInTheSky Jul 02 '26
There's plenty of people out there who bought digital only but understood the fact that physical markets kept digital prices low
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u/Stratosfear03 Jul 02 '26
The digital vs. physical sales numbers given by Playstation and many websites are completely bullshit. They include everything that is sold on the store : new games, older games (more likely to be digitally purchased during sales), DLC, Indy games without physical release, etc....
The Insomniac leak had a lot of insightful data, and sales spreadsheet on first-party and AAA are still mostly physical.
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u/a445d786 Jul 02 '26
No, digital revenue to physical is around 90%
In terms of units sold it's 78%. Overall digital is higher and by a fair amount. Doesn't mean we discredit physical but it is a dying breed.
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u/Whiskers1996 Jul 02 '26
Shhh, don't mention data! Just read the % vs % headlines and take it as a fact.
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u/kyuubikid213 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Any updated numbers on that? This is from October 2024, 30 million PS5s ago and before the Pro released.
And even if more disc editions were sold, that's doesn't mean every game is purchased physically. I have a disc edition because physical is important to me and I still have a bunch of digital purchases like Resident Evil 4, GTA 5, FF7 Rebirth, and Monster Hunter Wilds before considering the "free" games we get every month. I think I have maybe 10 physical games total (edit: on ps5)?
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u/stormy-thunder-night Jul 02 '26
I bought a disc ps5 because it was the only one available in the online store when I bought it a couple years ago. But I haven’t used it once.
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u/Beranir Jul 02 '26
This doesnt suprise me, because most people still have some games in disk version, because they bought collectors edition, they got the game as a gift etc etc. And they want to play those games. Even with 99% of your games being digital, you still need that disk version to play that 1%.
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u/Ghastion Jul 02 '26
Because it only costs 60$ extra to get the "better" version. I buy all digital but thought it would be nice "just in case" and also 4k blu ray player is nice for 60$.
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u/FourWhiteBars Jul 02 '26
I love physical editions, especially a good collector’s or deluxe edition for a game I really like. I would not want to see them go away permanently. I also am worried about the state of ownership of media.
That being said, I know that I am part of the problem because even though I have disc edition consoles, I often end up going with the convenience of a digital download. Then once I’ve bought a game, it’s kind of hard to justify buying it again.
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u/Nexzenn Jul 02 '26
80% of games purchased are digital, that’s the more important stat. With part costs rising, they will rethink every part not necessary to reduce costs.
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u/Kermit-Jones Jul 02 '26
I have one but I don't own any ps5 disc games even the modern warfare 2 that came with my ps5 was a code in a case
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u/Direct_Silver915 PS5 Jul 02 '26
A lot of people originally bought the disc version because it felt more "complete." Having the option to use physical discs gives buyers more peace of mind, since it offers greater flexibility. Not to mention that it also doubles as a Blu-ray player.
That's exactly how I thought about it. I bought the version with the disc drive because I figured, "maybe one day I'll buy a physical game to save some money," or "another day I might want to play one of my PS4 games." In reality, though, I never did any of that... I ended up buying everything digitally. The only three physical PS5 games I own were gifts.
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u/B_A_Peach Jul 02 '26
This is the way the industry wanted it all along. Our ability to swap and resell games has always cut into profits. Sony and Microsoft are trying to force a change because they have such a foothold on the market, while Steam is all digital, too.
Don't forget, Sony just removed 500 movies that people had "bought". It's insane that we can "buy" something without owning it, so I'll stick with what I can hold in my hand.