Sony also revealed that nearly 63 percent of its "full game" sales for the 2020 calendar year came via digital downloads rather than games sold on discs at retail. That's a significant increase from digital sales' 43 percent share in Sony's 2018 fiscal year (ending March 2019) and the 55 percent share in fiscal year 2019 (ending March 2020).

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/02/sony-shipped-4-5m-ps5s-in-2020-but-is-struggling-to-speed-up-production/

Damn. This is happening really fast. Next generation might basically be just like Stream (download only). You also have SNL making a joke about Gamestop with Pete Davidson saying 'Everybody just downloads their games now". That's it. Optical discs are done. Folks are even streaming instead of watching 4K Bluray.

I think there's no stopping this except for Nintendo. You can always count on them to stay traditional.

I can think of a very substantial reason people didn't buy physical so much on 2020... ;p

I think there's no stopping this except for Nintendo. You can always count on them to stay traditional.

NOOO! CODY! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!? /s

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I think there's no stopping this except for Nintendo. You can always count on them to stay traditional.

We’ll have to drag Nintendo into modernity kicking and screaming. I look forward to a time in like twenty years when I can play Nintendo games online with my friends and the experience isn’t absolute dogshit.

I can think of a very substantial reason people didn't buy physical so much on 2020... ;p

The increase from 2018 to 2019 was bigger than from 2019 to 2020.

I think there's no stopping this except for Nintendo. You can always count on them to stay traditional.

We’ll have to drag Nintendo into modernity kicking and screaming. I look forward to a time in like twenty years when I can play Nintendo games online with my friends and the experience isn’t absolute dogshit.

Don't forget that their current netcode still has a Windows 98 check...

Why get better when the money rolls in regardless?

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Cody's point is that the increase in share did not accelerate so the trend did not seem to be affected by people staying at home. And that makes sense to me. I don't think people make Physical/digital game decisions based on whether they planned to go to the mall, and people are having a lot of physical goods shipped to their home even when they are staying home.

Also, I'm really not sure why you are excluding Nintendo. They have a fully functioning eStore; it has all the physical games and more; everyone I know who has a switch uses the eStore as much as physical — if not exclusively; ACNH taught a whole wave of people that nothing's ever sold out on digital and now they have a fully set up account with a credit card already on file; Increasing or adding storage on the Switch is easier and cheaper than on the other consoles; Switch games will make a higher profit margin gain by switching to digital because cards cost more than discs to manufacture. They can't get their head out of the ground when it comes to online play, but they have e-commerce that's industry level.

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Cody's point is that the increase in share did not accelerate so the trend did not seem to be affected by people staying at home. And that makes sense to me. I don't think people make Physical/digital game decisions based on whether they planned to go to the mall, and people are having a lot of physical goods shipped to their home even when they are staying home.

Also, I'm really not sure why you are excluding Nintendo. They have a fully functioning eStore; it has all the physical games and more; everyone I know who has a switch uses the eStore as much as physical — if not exclusively; ACNH taught a whole wave of people that nothing's ever sold out on digital and now they have a fully set up account with a credit card already on file; Increasing or adding storage on the Switch is easier and cheaper than on the other consoles; Switch games will make a higher profit margin gain by switching to digital because cards cost more than discs to manufacture. They can't get their head out of the ground when it comes to online play, but they have e-commerce that's industry level.

I mean, we'll never know, but it's entirely possible that it may not have moved much at all without the pandemic.

Cody's point is that the increase in share did not accelerate so the trend did not seem to be affected by people staying at home. And that makes sense to me. I don't think people make Physical/digital game decisions based on whether they planned to go to the mall, and people are having a lot of physical goods shipped to their home even when they are staying home.

Also, I'm really not sure why you are excluding Nintendo. They have a fully functioning eStore; it has all the physical games and more; everyone I know who has a switch uses the eStore as much as physical — if not exclusively; ACNH taught a whole wave of people that nothing's ever sold out on digital and now they have a fully set up account with a credit card already on file; Increasing or adding storage on the Switch is easier and cheaper than on the other consoles; Switch games will make a higher profit margin gain by switching to digital because cards cost more than discs to manufacture. They can't get their head out of the ground when it comes to online play, but they have e-commerce that's industry level.

I mean, we'll never know, but it's entirely possible that it may not have moved much at all without the pandemic.

If anything, I suspect the sales most effected by the pandemic would be used games, as they are more dependant on physically going to the store. I have no idea what percentage of all physical game sales are used, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the reduction in physical sales is much greater than being reported, were we to factor in used sales.