The backlash surrounding PlayStation’s decision to stop producing physical game discs in 2028 rages on, with some arguing it’s only a vocal minority angry, while others point to various sources of data to show that many millions of gamers still like to buy discs.
Alinea Analytics has published data that shows us just how varied the physical sales numbers actually are across PlayStation games. Most notably, several of PlayStation’s own first-party games have sold quite a lot of discs, although the titles Alinea uses are several years older, meaning they are a bit behind the digital game sales curve.
It’s important to note that Alinea is only discussing sales on PlayStation, not sales across all platforms.
I’ve taken Alinea’s reporting here and tried to combine it with the best sales data I could find to give us an idea of how just how many physical copies were actually sold. Check the disclaimer at the bottom of the chart for full details, but in essence, these are just estimates and should not be taken as completely accurate.
Estimated PlayStation Physical Game Sales
Alinea Analytics’ estimated physical share applied to the best available PlayStation sales figure.
| Game | Best PlayStation sales figure | Physical share | Estimated physical copies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Final Fantasy VII Rebirth | 2.9 million Alinea Analytics · July 2026 | 48.0% | ≈1.39 million |
| Astro Bot | 4.3 million Alinea Analytics estimate · June 2026 | 45.8% | ≈1.97 million |
| Assassin’s Creed Shadows Calculated from 53.6% of 5.7 million worldwide sales. | ≈3.06 million Alinea Analytics estimate · July 2026 | 36.3% | ≈1.11 million |
| Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 | 16 million Alinea Analytics estimate · November 2025 | 34.8% | ≈5.57 million |
| Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Likely a minimum, as the PlayStation estimate predates later worldwide sales milestones. | ≈2 million Alinea Analytics estimate · November 2025 | 32.2% | ≈644,000 |
| Monster Hunter Wilds Likely a minimum because the PlayStation estimate is older. | ≈2.9 million Alinea Analytics estimate · July 2025 | 30.7% | ≈890,000 |
| Split Fiction Likely a minimum because the PlayStation estimate is older. | ≈2.5 million Alinea Analytics estimate · July 2025 | 26.6% | ≈665,000 |
| Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced Upper bound only. This subtracts 701,000 known Steam sales from 3.5 million worldwide sales, but cannot remove unknown Xbox sales or later Steam sales. | Below 2.80 million Ubisoft total plus Alinea Steam estimate · July 2026 | 24.9% | Below ≈697,000 |
| Madden NFL 26 | ≈1.6 million Alinea Analytics estimate · October 2025 | 12.9% | ≈206,000 |
| Black Myth: Wukong Likely a minimum because the PlayStation estimate is older. | ≈6.3 million Alinea Analytics estimate · June 2025 | 10.8% | ≈680,000 |
The data is fascinating because even while not completely accurate, we are still clearly looking many millions of physical games being sold. PlayStation isn’t wrong – it is still a fairly small percentage of gamers who are loyal to physical media, but it still amounts to a whole lot of people.
Nor are the counter-arguments wrong: the data Sony likes to throw about covers every single game, including the ones that are never released physically and thus skew the data heavily. Some of the biggest games in the world are only available digitally, after all.
My personal stance is simple: a switch to digital does not affect me much. I love physical, but I won’t be a hypocrite and tell you that the majority of my games are physical. They aren’t. But I don’t like the removal of choice. Physical should remain an option, especially because the laws surrounding digital media are still not fit for the task.
I’m also baffled by the lack of effort on Sony to at least let you keep playing your existing collection moving forward. There’s no reason a PS5 external drive could work on a PS6, allowing you to keep playing whatever discs you already own.
WGB 
