New US sales data suggests physical video game purchases have declined sharply, adding context to Sony’s move away from disc-based releases. While the figures do not necessarily justify ending physical production, they indicate that boxed games now represent a much smaller part of the market than they once did.

Circana analyst Mat Piscatella said only seven physical PlayStation games had sold more than 100,000 US copies so far in 2026, compared with 100 titles at the 2008 peak; none of this year’s seven exceeded 275,000 units. Across all consoles, US physical game sales fell from 292 million units in the 12 months to June 2009 to 37 million in the equivalent period ending June 2026, though the data covers only the US and may not reflect other markets.