Sony's decision to ditch discs was practically inevitable, data shows

The beginning of the end

Looking back, it’s easy to see why sales of physical games seemed to peak in the late 2000s. At that time, services like Xbox Live Arcade, PSN and WiiWare were already showing console gamers’ willingness to pay for downloads of smaller indie games, and the concept was expanding to downloadable versions of major releases like Infamous and LittleBigPlanet.

The slight uptick in physical game revenues last year can’t make up for 16 years of consistent, sharp declines.

Mat Piscatella / Circana

By the time the PlayStation Vita launched in 2012, Sony required that all publishers that make physical game cartridges also offer a downloadable option. Subsequent consoles like the Wii U, PS4, and Xbox One continued that trend, and by the end of the 2010’s physical-exclusive console releases were practically nonexistent. In recent years, some big-budget games have been skipping a retail release altogether or offering “download in a box” retail options like Switch 2’s Game Key Cards or Grand Theft Auto VI‘s printed download codes.