Sales of physical software accounted for just three percent of PlayStation sales last year, according to Sony’s latest corporate report.
Considering the company’s total gaming division sales in 2024 were 4,670bn yen (around $31.77bn by today’s conversion), Sony still made around $953m in physical software sales (as a rough estimate).
However, that number has dropped from six percent of sales back in 2020. It’s no wonder Sony’s PS5 consoles are primarily digital-only when fewer consumers are buying physical games, even with the option of a disc drive. Or has there been a decline in physical games because of the digital-only consoles? And with reports the PS6 will also be digital-only with an optional disc drive, it’s a trend that’s only set to continue.
By comparison, hardware makes up 24 percent of sales, though that’s a given considering the high cost of consoles – a price that keeps getting higher. That’s increased from 19 percent in 2020.
Digital software sales, meanwhile, account for 20 percent of revenue – a huge margin compared with physical sales.
Add-on content (DLC, effectively), accounts for 29 percent of sales, the biggest revenue driver of all. It’s no wonder, then, Sony is so keen to push live-service games – its report highlights the success of Helldivers 2, Destiny 2, Gran Turismo and MLB The Show, as well as noting the “eagerly awaited Marathon”.
Interestingly, the proportion of network services sales has dropped since 2020 from 17 to 14 percent (perhaps due to the rise in hardware sales). However, since 2022, monthly active users have increased 14 percent to 124 million accounts in 2024.
Another reason for the lower physical software sales last year could be the limited number of first-party games released, which tend to be bought more as physical editions. Astro Bot was the company’s biggest release last year, which sold 1.5m in its first month, but it was otherwise a quiet year.
PlayStation’s decline in physical game sales parallels Nintendo’s struggles with Switch 2. As game sizes have increased, it’s become more difficult to squeeze them onto physical media – that’s why Switch 2 uses game key cards that act as a key for a download. But with digital storage at a premium, it means massive games like Final Fantasy 7 Remake will take up huge amounts of capacity.
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