It might be hip and trendy to still be buying DVDs, records, and other physical media, but the amount of gamers willing to ditch digital sales is only decreasing. At the end of 2025, the US saw its all-time lowest spending on new physical games as the figure dropped by 11% to $1.5 billion.
This comes from Circana's Mat Piscatella via Bluesky, who explained that while the rate of decline actually isn't that bad, and is much better than the -28% blow physical games took in 2024, the slowing decline comes from the fact that we're nearing the bottom of the barrel when it comes to physical game revenue in the US.
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The launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 helped stabilise physical game sales, as a lot of users of Nintendo consoles like owning physical copies of their games. Still, as we look at gaming's future, it's hard to see how we divert from the digital path. Digital marketplaces offer more sales, often better deals, and can even give gamers their titles a lot sooner than physical releases. Diehard fans will still fight to keep games physical, but the industry seems to have moved well away.