Yes, people still buy games on disc. They are just no longer the majority when a new PlayStation game is sold.
Sony's latest financial data shows that 82% of full-game sales on PS4 and PS5 were digital during the first quarter of its 2026 financial year. That leaves about 18% for physical copies. Five years earlier, the physical share was roughly 34%.
Those numbers confirm that disc buyers are now a minority. They do not mean only 18% of PlayStation players use discs. One person can buy some games digitally and others physically, and Sony is counting purchases rather than individual people. The total also includes games that were never offered on disc.
Five Years of PlayStation Sales
The move toward downloads has been steady. Physical copies represented about 34% of PlayStation full-game sales in FY2021, 33% in FY2022, 30% in FY2023, 24% in FY2024, and 22% in FY2025. The latest quarter brought that figure down to 18%.
This did not happen in one year. Digital stores became easier to use, consoles gained more storage, subscriptions put large libraries behind one payment, and many smaller games stopped receiving physical editions. Players also became more comfortable downloading a release at midnight instead of visiting a store or waiting for delivery.
The Change Goes Beyond PlayStation
Electronic Arts reported a similar change across its PlayStation and Xbox releases. Its digital share of console unit sales rose from 62% in FY2021 to 81% in FY2026, according to the company's SEC filings. That comparison covers one publisher rather than the whole market, but it shows how quickly major console releases have moved online.
Physical games still generate serious money. U.S. consumers spent about $1.5 billion on new physical games in 2025, according to . Spending was down 11% from the previous year and reached its lowest level in three decades, but $1.5 billion is not a market with no customers.
