A new survey from research firm Newzoo, "supported" by G2A, found that physical games represent upwards of 11% of games played by dedicated gamers, or even 30% of console games owned.
"Physical formats remain part of this landscape, despite predictions of their demise," writes Newzoo research director Alexis Pamboris.
The report collected responses from just over 6,000 "premium gamers" spread evenly across six markets: the US, UK, Germany, Poland, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia. The fieldwork period defined is August 2026, which would notably be some time after Sony announced that it will end support for new physical games in January 2028.
The "premium gamer" group is defined as people "aged 18-55 who play on PC or a Gen 9 console at least monthly," and have played AA or AAA titles in the last year that were purchased or played through a paid subscription like PlayStation Plus or Xbox Game Pass. The average premium gamer, it turns out, plays about 13.3 games a year.
Among many other things, the report looks at how these games were accessed. 43% were owned, 19% were accessed via subscription, and 38% were free-to-play games.
In total, 11% of the games played by these 6,000 gamers were physical. However, if you only look at the 43% of owned games – that is, games people paid for individually – the physical component is just over 25.5%.
Console-only gamers reported 14% physical for total ownership against 32% digital ownership. 4% of the paid-for console games played in this survey period.
Source link
