Despite the convenience and instant gratification of digital purchases, the amount of PlayStation 5 users who prefer physical releases outweighs those who prefer digital downloads. That’s according to data shared by Global Sales Data (GSD), which reveal that physical PS5 titles have consistently outsold their digital counterparts every month following the PS5’s initial debut in November 2020. That was the only month in which digital (950,000) sales managed to outrank physical (840,000).
From GamesIndustry.biz’s coverage:
The company found that retail has consistently outsold digital, with 51% more boxed games sold than downloads by the end of August.
November 2020 was the only month where full-game downloads have outperformed retail sales at 950,000 units compared to 840,000. After this, PS5’s retail games have consistently outsold digital every month.
And the gap has widened over time. In December 2020, five retail games were sold for every four downloads. By the end of August, this had increased to three boxed games for ever two digital.
In total, 10.14 million boxed games were sold for PS5 between launch and end of August. December, January, June, July and August all saw more than one million games sold within the month.
Meanwhile, 7.51 million digital games were sold during the same period — and no single month saw more than one million sales.
Video games consultant Sam Naji speculates that PS5 gamers prefer a physical product due to the relatively high cost of premium titles, which are priced at $69.99. Another reason that physical games continue to be desirable is that they can be lent or sold.
Source: Global Sales Data (via GamesIndustry.biz)