More bad news for supporters of the retail market, i.e. that of physical copies, as the digital market continues to gain ground.\r\nNon-physical copies have grown exponentially this generation, also thanks to consoles such as PlayStation 5 Digital (which you can find on Amazon) and Xbox Series S.\r\nThe digital market continues to grow, with that of physical copies destined to collapse year after year.\r\nNow, after even Ubisoft had hinted that the farewell to physical games is inevitable, another cold shower is coming.\r\nNow, as also reported by PushSquare, according to a new report physical games represented only 4% of PlayStation sales in the last quarter.\r\nThe data Sony’s financial statements for the second quarter of 2023 highlight how physical games are now a drop in the PlayStation bucket.\r\nSony Interactive Entertainment recorded a record-breaking second quarter in terms of revenue, with an increase of 32.38% compared to the previous year, accounting for 954.1 billion yen.\r\nOf this total, physical games accounted for approximately 35.5 billion yen, or approximately four percent. For comparison, digital sales of full games on the PS Store represent 21% of total revenue.\r\nThis is not unusually low: physical games have been a small percentage of PlayStation’s revenue stream for a quite some time. However, what is interesting is that, in this record-breaking segment, physical games are the only sales category that decreased compared to the previous year.\r\nBy the same measure, all other areas saw growth significant.\r\nWhen looking at PlayStation’s physical/digital sales split (which looks at units sold rather than cash), just over two-thirds (67%) of software sales in Q2 2023 were digital . This is a slight increase from the previous year, but down from the first quarter of 2023.\r\nOf course there is still a market for physical games, albeit a small one. 35.5 billion yen is certainly not a small figure, but the main source of sales has definitely shifted, if that wasn’t already clear enough. \r\nFor our part, we will never stop saying it: if on the one hand digital games offer advantages in terms of practicality and space saving, on the other critics argue that the transition to exclusively digital gaming poses problems for the conservation of games and the availability of older titles.\r\nSticking the topic, a major retailer could stop selling all physical media as early as early next year.\r\nIf you want to support Gameshift’s work in the meantime, you can purchase your favorite video games on Amazon at no additional cost, especially in physical format.