Wild Stat Reveals How Few PlayStation Discs Were Sold This Year

Everybody is aware of bodily recreation gross sales have turn into an increasingly slender slice of the market. With every passing yr, extra gamers go for the comfort of digital downloads. However seeing actual numbers can put that decline in stark distinction. A brand new knowledge level shared by the Circana Retail Monitoring Service reveals simply how marginalized bodily recreation gross sales have turn into within the U.S., and how much problem followers who’re urging Sony to protect PlayStation discs are up in opposition to.

“Two PlayStation video video games bought greater than 10k bodily items within the US throughout week ending July 11, 2026,” Circana director of recreation analysis Mat Piscatella shared on Bluesky yesterday. “Seven have bought greater than 100k bodily items year-to-date.” These are two very attention-grabbing, if barely imprecise, statistics. That’s not Circana’s fault; the group shouldn’t be alleged to disclose particular gross sales figures for particular person video games. However let’s break down what these new knowledge factors do recommend.

The checklist of best-selling games year-to-date within the U.S. is led by Resident Evil Requiem, adopted by Crimson Desert, MLB: The Present 26, 007 First Gentle, Forza Horizon 6, Pokémon Pokopia, Lego Batman: Legacy of the Darkish Knight, Tomodachi Life: Dwelling the Dream, WWE 2K26, and Name of Obligation: Black Ops 7. We additionally know that Resident Evil Requiem bought over 7 million copies, Crimson Desert bought over 6 million copies, and 007 First Gentle has bought over 3 million copies.

Now lets make some assumptions. First, let’s assume the highest seven best-selling video games year-to-date are additionally the seven that bought over 100,000 PlayStation disc copies within the U.S. Second, let’s assume a roughly 90-percent cut up in favor of digital gross sales. That will recommend the whole bodily gross sales of Resident Evil Requiem, for instance, can be 700,000 for the entire world. Solely a part of that’s PlayStation discs vs. Xbox, and solely a part of that’s discs bought within the U.S.

What this thought experiment drives dwelling fairly rapidly is that even the top-selling video games of the yr in all probability haven’t bought rather more than 100,000 PlayStation disc items. It appears most unlikely that any of those video games broke 300,000 PlayStation disc gross sales, not to mention half one million. Even when these numbers double by the tip of the yr, it appears unlikely that any of these video games crack 1 million bodily gross sales within the U.S. alone. In a method, this additionally reinforces the bigger level about bodily video games that analysts have been making for years.

Whilst most customers go for digital downloads, the whole sale of bodily video games annually nonetheless isn’t nothing. In response to Daniel Ahmad, director of analysis and insights at Niko Companions, Sony sold roughly 70 million physical PlayStation games in 2025. That’s nonetheless numerous income annually, nevertheless it’s additionally an especially small quantity for any explicit new recreation in any explicit territory. An extra wrinkle is that first-party releases are likely to have a better ratio of bodily gross sales as hardcore followers go for a everlasting copy they’ll add to their assortment.

The maths shouldn’t be within the pro-disc crowd’s nook, even when sentiment, nostalgia, and the broader vibes round gaming tradition are. Piscatella’s argument is that it’ll take greater than tens of thousands of angry comments on PlayStation’s YouTube channel to get the platform holder to alter course. It can take an actual boycott motion and the mass cancelation of PS Plus subscriptions. Within the meantime, a petition demanding Sony reverse course seems to expire of gasoline at less than 400,000 signatures.