Sales of digital, downloaded games have been outpacing the sales of physical, boxed games for some time now. With many games that are released both digitally and physically, there are more digital downloads than physical sales.
However, some games seem to be bucking that trend, especially in the UK and Europe.
In a report by The Game Business, Astro Bot is one of those games that bucked the trend and sold more boxed copies than it did digital copies. Astro Bot, which was released in 2024, sold 55% of physical copies in the UK. On the European continent, that figure increased to 60%.
Another PS5 exclusive, Spider-Man 2, also sold more physical copies than it did digitally in the UK (54%) although The Game Business notes that this includes console bundles.
According to recent data, PS5 disc consoles have outpaced digital consoles in the UK significantly. With disc-based consoles accounted for about 82% of total sales. So it seems that although physical game sales are certainly down, there is still room for physical games in today’s gaming market.
In the most recent UK PS5 Boxed Charts, Astro Bot is still proving to be a very popular physical game purchase. Remaining at number two in the PS5 chart and number three in the all formats chart, 32 weeks after launch.
