The PlayStation 5 has been out for almost four years, and 82% of its total console sales were for the disc drive version, meaning only 18% of PlayStation users opted for the digital-only edition. The report from Circana confirms that regardless of what console manufacturers and video game developers say, there is still a lot of demand for physical media.
Sony has been trying to go digital-only for a while now. The most recent hardware by Sony is the PlayStation 5 Pro, which only comes in one version, the digital one, and to get the disc working you have to buy it separately and attach it to the console and, to the dismay of all physical media fans, have to install a software update to make the disc drive work.
This more costly approach still hasn’t turned people off from physical discs, and even if the digital-only future is always on the horizon, at least for now, the video game community still values physical media.
Switching over to Team Green, the Xbox Series X is the favorite child of the people, but only by a very small margin. The Series S makes up for 49% of total Xbox Series sales, while the rest are attributed to its bigger brother, the Series X.
On the other hand, the overall hardware sales for video game consoles have dropped, and by a ton. Each month reaches a new low in terms of total console sales, which may seem concerning at first, but is exactly what Sony expected. In terms of money, hardware spending went from $445 million to only $251 million, which comes out to a drop of almost half year-over-year. This is the lowest revenue from console hardware since September 2019 when it dropped to $242 million.
While Sony saw a drop of 45% in PlayStation 5 sales, Xbox saw an even larger 54% drop compared to last year. Even though the Nintendo Switch is showing its age and people are waiting for its successor which is reportedly right around the corner, its sales still only declined by 23%.
On the bright side, overall, the industry has made over $2.5 billion in 2024, and gaming accessories have seen an increase in revenue of 1%. The PlayStation Portal has stuck around after Sony took criticism of the device seriously and made some major changes with software updates.
