summation
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Due to the increase in digital downloads, the US's actual video game sales have been decreasing for many years.
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Over the past 25 years, spending on physical game discs in the United States has decreased by more than 85% from 2008.
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Nintendo's promises to release physical media can be tested as digital sales continue to increase.
The actual video game sales are decreasing in the United States and have been so in the last few years. Online video game stores such as console -based stores such as Steam, Epic Games Store and PlayStation Store and Nintendo ESHOP have made it easier to buy video games for the past few generations. It solves storage problems for mortar retailers and physical disks. In recent years, subscription services such as Xbox Game Pass have been made more convenient by providing full title libraries with small monthly fees.
There are many gamers who prefer to buy physical disks over game downloads or service subscriptions due to concerns about perfume or video game preservation, but in recent years, the actual media sales have slowed. In 2023, only 10.5%of the games sold in the previous year were physical, while about 89.5%were digital downloads. Most companies are still doing their best to sell real game disks, but retailers such as Walmart and Best Buy have been slowly abolishing the electrons slowly in the store.

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As reported by Circana's executive director and game industry analyst MAT PISCATELLA, the clear decline in physical video game disk sales continued throughout 2024. He recently shared a graph that emphasizes the sales of video game software over the past 25 years of Bluesky (through VGC), and the overall video game contents spending (including subscription and small payment) has increased since 2019, but the actual media sales It has been steadily decreasing for 16 years. The spending on video game disks has been cut in half since 2021 and is currently up to 65% in 2008.
Physical video game sales have decreased since 2008
In 2024, the US physical video game software spending was accelerated. The US spending on physical video game software has been reduced to more than half since 2021, and is now more than 85% of the 2008 peak. You can see if Switch 2 can help to slow or reverse this trend in 2025.-Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2025-01-24T19: 24: 41.744z
It is worth pointing out that the clear transition from physical video game media to digital downloads can be different for each country and platform. Last year, Europe's total digital market share increased from 60%to 68%, and Xbox's digital market share rose from 70%to 75%, PlayStation 5 rapidly increased from 55%to 64%, and Nintendo remained 22%.
Some people speculated that in 2024 that the new release of Nintendo would have affected last year's physical sales, and Piscatella wondered if the launch of Nintendo Switch 2 could slow down or slow down the downward trend later this year. It lasted for almost 20 years. Earlier this year, Nintendo Chairman Sean Taro Purukawa reaffirmed the company's promise to disclose physical media, even if he admitted that the transition to digital downloads is increasing.