Research company Circana has published data on physical game sales over the past quarter century. Since 2021, purchases of such products by US residents have halved. And if you compare 2024 with the peak of sales, which occurred in 2008, then the amount of money spent on “boxed” versions of games has decreased by as much as 85%.
Image source: techspot.com
US consumer spending on this type of product peaked in 2008 at just under $12 billion. Since then, sales have shown a steady downward trend, reaching their lowest recorded level of less than $2 billion in 2024.
Image source here and below: Circana
Meanwhile, total sales of games, hardware and accessories reached nearly $60 billion in 2024, up from $44 billion five years earlier.
One only needs to look at today’s gaming consoles to understand where the industry is heading. The PS5 has a “digital” version, the Xbox Series S does not have a disc drive, and neither does the PS5 Pro, requiring you to buy it separately. Retail stores are suffering losses, cutting jobs and closing branches. Meanwhile, on PC, physical game sales have long been negligible, and in 2022, about 72% of console game sales worldwide also came from digital downloads.
The increased decline in spending between 2023 and 2024 is partly due to the low number of releases for the Nintendo Switch, which accounts for the majority of today’s physical game sales. In 2025, we may see a significant uptick in retail game sales thanks to the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 console (supports both physical and digital games) and the release of GTA VI, which will also likely have a disc version.