PlayStation’s Physical Games Still Sell Millions, Shows Data

The backlash surrounding PlayStation’s decision to stop producing physical game discs in 2028 rages on, with some arguing it’s only a vocal minority angry, while others point to various sources of data to show that many millions of gamers still like to buy discs.

Alinea Analytics has published data that shows us just how varied the physical sales numbers actually are across PlayStation games. Most notably, several of PlayStation’s own first-party games have sold quite a lot of discs, although the titles Alinea uses are several years older, meaning they are a bit behind the digital game sales curve.

It’s important to note that Alinea is only discussing sales on PlayStation, not sales across all platforms.

I’ve taken Alinea’s reporting here and tried to combine it with the best sales data I could find to give us an idea of how just how many physical copies were actually sold. Check the disclaimer at the bottom of the chart for full details, but in essence, these are just estimates and should not be taken as completely accurate.

Very important disclaimer: This is a rough, for-interest-only exercise rather than a definitive sales report. Several PlayStation totals are third-party estimates rather than official publisher figures, some were reported months before the physical-share data, and figures may have changed since publication. The estimated physical totals simply multiply the best available PlayStation sales number by Alinea Analytics’ stated physical percentage. Do not take the results too seriously.

The data is fascinating because even while not completely accurate, we are still clearly looking many millions of physical games being sold. PlayStation isn’t wrong – it is still a fairly small percentage of gamers who are loyal to physical media, but it still amounts to a whole lot of people.

Nor are the counter-arguments wrong: the data Sony likes to throw about covers every single game, including the ones that are never released physically and thus skew the data heavily. Some of the biggest games in the world are only available digitally, after all.

My personal stance is simple: a switch to digital does not affect me much. I love physical, but I won’t be a hypocrite and tell you that the majority of my games are physical. They aren’t. But I don’t like the removal of choice. Physical should remain an option, especially because the laws surrounding digital media are still not fit for the task.

I’m also baffled by the lack of effort on Sony to at least let you keep playing your existing collection moving forward. There’s no reason a PS5 external drive could work on a PS6, allowing you to keep playing whatever discs you already own.