Friday, September 11th 2026
Physical Discs Still Drive a Big Chunk of Revenue for PlayStation's Top Exclusives
Data shared by analyst Rhys Elliott of Alinea Analytics suggests physical discs still account for a meaningful share of revenue for PlayStation's biggest exclusives, even as Sony winds down disc production starting in 2028. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 pulled in $1.2 billion overall, with 35% of that coming from discs. Ghost of Yotei sits close behind at nearly 40% of its $400 million in revenue coming from discs. Astro Bot, Stellar Blade, and Death Stranding 2 all land in a similar 32% to 47% range. Helldivers 2 is the clear outlier, with physical copies covering just 8.3% of its $235 million in revenue, but that's to be expected from a multiplayer game.
As the numbers suggest, Sony's big-name exclusives still have a sizeable audience that leans towards physical discs. Meanwhile, Sony seems to be getting more careful about its bets. Concord's cancellation reportedly cost over $300 million, and titles like Marathon, Saros, Marvel Tokon, and Lego Horizon Adventures all landed softer than hoped. Marvel's Wolverine, one of the studio's biggest remaining tentpoles, just settled at 78 on Metacritic after its review embargo lifted, matching last year's Days Gone Remaster and falling short of prestige expectations.
Sony has said no amount of backlash will change its mind on cutting discs, and a digital sale still nets more profit once retailer cuts and manufacturing are factored in. Still, with prestige single-player exclusives clearly holding onto a real physical audience, and Sony still chasing a bigger live-service hit of its own, the timing of this decision is looking quite debatable to say the least.
Source:
Rhys Elliot on X
As the numbers suggest, Sony's big-name exclusives still have a sizeable audience that leans towards physical discs. Meanwhile, Sony seems to be getting more careful about its bets. Concord's cancellation reportedly cost over $300 million, and titles like Marathon, Saros, Marvel Tokon, and Lego Horizon Adventures all landed softer than hoped. Marvel's Wolverine, one of the studio's biggest remaining tentpoles, just settled at 78 on Metacritic after its review embargo lifted, matching last year's Days Gone Remaster and falling short of prestige expectations.
13 Comments on Physical Discs Still Drive a Big Chunk of Revenue for PlayStation's Top Exclusives
Since now we know that Sony wants to kill physical version so they can control what people do with their games, any customer that know the situation will prioritise buying the disc version.
Hope for the best.
This tactic they are pulling is to hurt the used game market and cut out retail stores, so the publishers and them get more of the money.
The price we see on physical, has to split 3 ways..
Sony already has control, ain't that the point of the console environment. If you want them to have more control, they can actually make it a requirement that every physical game has to authenticate briefly before you play it.
Persons are acting like physical can't be screwed with.
This is simple cutting out the other party out of the deal and hurting used game sales.
confusingmiddle.com/2025/04/10/the-role-of-memes-and-information-control-in-metal-gear-solid-2/Remember Microsoft?
www.neowin.net/news/xbox-durango-xdk-leak-confirms-always-online-mandatory-hdd-installs-required-kinect-2/
Remember Blizzard?
My only retort to this Sony move is this:
If you have any questions, please contact our Customer Support AI.
Be aware that you need a SCS in good standing to so.
Also, the big question is if physical gamers quit gaming or migrate to digital. My vote is in the latter.
People are like "well I get my games from GOG". No. No you don't. Steam estimated yearly sales is near $20B. GOG is $50M. Even Epic pulls in more from 3rd party games then GOG and apparently no one likes or uses Epic.
The real only concern is how Sony plans to continue supporting a game I buy today, 20 years from now. The answer is real simple. Sony just needs to explain the future beyond "no more disc" and the someone answer be contained within.
As far as games being more expensive on console, that isn't true. I buy a decent amount of games on console. I do because it's cheaper than on PC at the time of my purchase. Someone's PC version won't be on sale at all, or if it is it isn't as good.
Just like how the PC guys adapted and gaming on pc became bigger because of too much sales, same can happen here.
i personally detest, every time i want to load a new game, i have to go look for the case and sometimes the games ain't in their right case, pfft 1st world probBINGO...
I said to my friend, do you want PR guys to surprise you or give you a future heads up because make no mistake about it MS will go this route also... Nintendo probably has ONE more cart gen in them, then they'll likely go all digital as well (at least for now Nintendo lets you can sell your key code)..