Physical Games Still Make Up 30% of Owned Console Libraries, Survey Finds

Physical copies still make up close to a third of the console games people actually own, according to a new Newzoo white paper produced with support from G2A. The firm surveyed 6,166 “premium gamers” across the US, UK, Germany, Poland, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia in August, defined as players aged 18 to 55 who game at least monthly on PC or a current-gen console and bought or subscribed to at least one AA or AAA title in the past year. Of the console games these respondents paid for outright, 30.4% were physical. That share drops to 11% across everything they play, since free-to-play and subscription titles together account for more than half of it.

Apparently, the most common reason for buying physical is being able to play without a stable internet connection, followed by the feeling of owning something tangible and saving storage space. That last one carries a bit more weight now that game download sizes have ballooned, with GTA 6 needing up to 212 GB on its own. Reselling, trading, or lending games came in fourth, and that is something digital console purchases still largely don’t allow. PC is a different story, with PC-only players reporting just 6% physical ownership, although GOG would like to change that.

The survey ran after Sony confirmed it will stop producing discs for new PlayStation games starting January 2028, citing a preference for digital that “significantly outpaces” physical. Alinea Analytics data has physical sales at under 20% of revenue for 2026 PlayStation releases, so Sony’s read isn’t exactly wrong. Still, it looks like a sizable group of console players isn’t ready to let go of physical copies just yet.