Marvel’s Wolverine could be among the final first-party PlayStation releases offered on disc, as Sony moves towards an all-digital future. Yet estimates suggest boxed games remain a significant part of the market: about 35% of Wolverine sales were reportedly physical PS5 copies.
Disc sales remain strong for major PlayStation releases
Estimates shared with The Game Business cover PlayStation’s best-selling games for September 2025. Wolverine was not the only prominent release to record substantial disc sales.
- The Blood of Dawnwalker was estimated to have 36% of sales in physical form.
- Silent Hill Townfall was estimated to have 45% of sales on disc.
Physical purchases were particularly strong in parts of Europe, where PlayStation remains the leading gaming platform. For collectors and players who prefer an item they can keep, trade or lend, the figures suggest that boxed releases still have a meaningful role.
That makes the position of physical games difficult to read. Some buyers may be purchasing discs while they remain available, ahead of Sony’s expected shift away from boxed software. Equally, the figures may show that removing physical games altogether would leave a sizeable customer demand unserved.
Why collectors still buy boxed games
NYU business professor and gaming analyst Joost van Dreunen told The Game Business that consumers still have a strong desire to collect. In his view, physical sales remain highly relevant even as the industry prepares to move on from discs.
The same tension appears across the broader arcade and gaming news landscape. A digital library is convenient, but a physical game also provides ownership of a tangible release and a visible record of a player’s collection.
Game-key cards complicate the digital shift
US physical gaming spending increased month over month in August, driven in part by the surge in game-key card sales for Nintendo Switch 2. Players bought new releases and ports, including Elden Ring, in that format.
Game-key cards occupy an unusual middle ground: they are sold in shops as physical products, but the software itself may still rely on a digital download or code. Their popularity nevertheless shows that customers continue to respond to something they can purchase and take home.
Sony’s move towards an all-digital gaming future has therefore become more open to reassessment. The possibility could become even more significant if Xbox preserves some form of physical gaming for its next-generation Project Helix devices, although that remains an unexpected possibility rather than a confirmed plan.
What this means for gaming collections
For Australian players building a collection around dedicated hardware, the debate goes beyond a single superhero release. Choosing between a digital library, boxed software and an arcade setup involves considering space, access, collecting habits and long-term ownership. RETROCADE’s arcade machine buying guide offers a useful starting point, while arcade cabinets provide another way to keep games centred on dedicated hardware.
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