Are Physical Games Dying?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2025
- Why physical games are better: • Why physical games are...
If you’re gamer of any sort, the chances are you have at some point bought a digital copy of a game, probably many of them. With the overall market trend seeming to be in favour of digital games for many years now, are physical games going extinct? In this video were going to look at the total market share data of digital and physical games and why digital sales are growing at such a fast pace.
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Lets start with the market share data. For PC, over 99% of games sold in 2024 were digital, from stores such as steam or epic. Finding someone who still buys physical pc games is extremely rare.
For consoles digital is still dominant, but much less so than on pc. Sonys own 2023 to 2024 financial report appears to show that around 70% of games sold were digital. Xbox has typically been the most digital of the consoles and published data from the 2023 to 2024 financial year show around 80% of games sold were digital. Nintendo don’t make their data for first party titles public but for 3rd party titles digital sales made up only 35% of all sales. However as the majority of their sales are likely to be 1st party titles we cant really rely on this data to give an accurate picture of the situation on switch.
So we can see for nearly all platforms, digital sales make up the bulk of the total games sold and have been increasing their market share for years.
So why is digital so dominant and its market share consistently increasing year on year?
The first reason is convenience. Digital platforms like Steam, PlayStation Store, and Xbox store offer instant access to games without the need to visit a store, wait for shipping, or even leave home. Digital purchases allow for immediate play upon download, no more waiting in line at a midnight release.
Another reason is the growth of digital only consoles. With the introduction of consoles like the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition and Xbox Series S, many gamers are choosing to go fully digital. These consoles don't include disc drives, making digital downloads the only option. Digital-only consoles offer a lower upfront cost, which further drives the trend away from physical media.
Its also worth noting that subscription services like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus have contributed significantly to the decline of physical games. These services offer access to a vast library of games for a monthly fee, reducing the need for individual game purchases altogether. Cloud gaming services such as Nvidia GeForce Now and Amazon Luna allow gamers to stream games without ever downloading or owning them, bypassing the need for physical copies.
These factors combined mean that physical games do appear to be on a downward trend and may stop being produced entirely in the not-too-distant future. Its possible they may make a comeback in the way that vinyl records have even in the age of music streaming but this would still require console manufactures to keep producing consoles with a disc tray. Its unclear at this point if Microsoft and sony will continue to do this with the next few generations of console. If you’re interested in knowing why I think buying digital games is not always a good choice, check out my video on it which is linked in the description.
Do you think physical games will die out entirely and if so when? Let me know down in the comments and please do subscribe if you’ve enjoyed this video and thanks for watching!
#physicalgames #xbox #playstation
Do you think physical games will die out eventually and if so when?
I don’t think physical goods are dying since I feel that physical media is eternal especially for Games, Blu rays and DVD. I only go on steam for digital only purchases.
I hope you are correct!
No get mine from Amazon uk and odd one from game here in England.
How do you find the experience of shopping in Game recently? In my area Game is now inside sports direct and doesn’t sell any pre owned games at all! I miss the 3 for 2 deals
@techindex1 they don't do pre orders for new games. Unfortunately as for used titles they still do this. But games catalogue in store not as big as it was. That's why I shop with Amazon