In recent years, console makers and video game developers have tilted towards digital-only content. However, recent statistics suggest players still prefer to physically own their games. PS5 Disc Editions has sold 82% more than the Digital Edition in the United States.
American market research and technology company Circana has released its report for September. Mat Piscatella, executive director and video game industry analyst at Circana took to social media platform BlueSky to share some of the findings of the report.
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“40% of total PlayStation 5 hardware unit sales in September came from Digital PS5 consoles,” wrote Piscatella. “Digital consoles now comprise 18% of total life-to-date unit sales of PS5 hardware.”
From that data, it is clear that PS5 Disc Edition still takes a large chunk of 82% of unit sales life-to-date. In recent years, Sony has continued to push players to make the transition to digital-only versions of its consoles.
The company has ultimately removed disc drives from its consoles and players who insist on playing physical games have to pay more to purchase it separately. For example, the new PS5 Pro will only be available in digital version and the disc drive is sold separately.
Perhaps, the idea is to push players to embrace Digital Editions of the PS5 Pro (and beyond) if they don’t want to incur additional costs. Nevertheless, the current Circana report suggests players are fine with spending a little extra to physically own their games.
While digital-only content delivery may be the reality in the near future, it is evident gamers are not fully ready to embrace that transition. But will you fault their apprehension?
Just recently, Valve updated their terms to let players know that when they are purchasing games digitally on Steam they are only purchasing rights to the game and don’t really own the game. That caused severe controversy which will further encourage players to push towards owning their games physically.
PS5 continues to lead console sales in September
The data shared by Piscatella shows that PS5 again led the month’s hardware market in unit and dollar sales. However, the Xbox Series ranked second in dollar sales while the Nintendo Switch came second in units sold.
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Both Xbox Series hardware and PS5 saw a decline in spending by 54% and 45% respectively while the year-to-date hardware spending has dropped by 30% compared to last year.
Although consumer spending on accessories grew by just 1% compared to last year, the PlayStation Portal was the best-selling accessory in dollar sales for September. However, only 3% of PS5 owners have purchased a PlayStation Portal.
Which do you prefer between PS5 physical and digital editions? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
