Nintendo says physical copies still made up 38.5% of its software sales in its latest financial results, indicating it is unlikely to abandon boxed games soon. This contrasts with Sony’s plan to stop releasing new PlayStation 5 games on disc from January 2028, and highlights Nintendo’s continued reliance on customers who value sharing, resale and collecting.

Digital downloads now account for 61.5% of Nintendo software sales, after physical sales fell by 2.2 percentage points. Nintendo uses a mixed approach for Switch 2 releases, including standard cartridges, Game-Key Cards and boxed download codes, while making digital editions roughly $10 cheaper than boxed versions; Capcom, by comparison, says about 90% of its sales are digital.