New sales data shared by The Game Business suggests physical PS5 games still have plenty of buyers. According to Ampere Analysis, 35% of worldwide sales of Marvel’s Wolverine in September came from boxed copies. Ampere estimates the game sold around 2.16 million copies in its launch month, which would put physical sales at roughly 756,000. Interestingly, Europe leaned even harder towards discs, with GSD data showing 51% of sales there coming from the boxed version. The split varies a lot by country, though. Two thirds of Wolverine’s UK sales were digital, while in France more than two thirds were physical. Wolverine wasn’t alone either, as over 45% of Silent Hill: Townfall sales were boxed, while The Blood of Dawnwalker on PS5 and Onimusha came in at 36% and 30%, respectively.
These numbers are interesting because Sony plans to stop producing discs for new PlayStation games from January 2028, and earlier data from Alinea Analytics pointed in a similar direction for Sony’s biggest exclusives. Of course, these are estimates, and actual data available to Sony may be different. Moreover, these patterns can be affected heavily by factors such as pricing and availability. There have also been rumors that Sony could push its digital-only plans back, while Microsoft is asking Xbox Insiders whether its next console should support discs. For now, though, Sony’s own messaging still points to a January 2028 cutoff.
