Connecting the dots: The anti-PlayStation backlash does not appear to have cooled in the weeks following Sony’s announcement that it will cease manufacturing physical game discs in January 2028. However, despite online sentiment, available sales data shows that angry consumers are not voting with their wallets.
Circana analyst Mat Piscatella recently stated that only seven PlayStation games have sold more than 100,000 physical copies in the first half of 2026. Only two sold more than 10,000 during the week ending July 11, potentially vindicating Sony’s claim that PlayStation owners overwhelmingly prefer digital purchases.
Piscatella’s statistic came in response to the more than 10,000 comments that flooded a recent trailer for the upcoming Sony-published title Wolverine, set to launch September 15. Compared to other Sony trailers with larger view counts, the figure suggests that conversations about the company’s impending digital-only era remain heated.
2 PlayStation video games sold more than 10k physical units in the US during week ending July 11, 2026. 7 have sold more than 100k physical units year-to-date. Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service
[image or embed]
– Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) July 20, 2026 at 1:37 PM
Although Piscatella’s figures offer only a snapshot of US sales, other numbers paint a similar picture. A Change.org petition demanding Sony continue manufacturing discs has exceeded 300,000 signatures, but Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Japanese game industry consultancy firm Kantan Games, recently told IGN that the number is dwarfed by the roughly 50 million PlayStation Plus subscribers.
Sony’s 2025 fiscal year statement also confirms that 78% of the games it sold that year were digital, though the number includes titles that are only available digitally, which constitute the majority of the PlayStation 5’s library. The remaining 22% of sales were physical, amounting to nearly 70 million discs. For those curious, the PlayStation titles that have exceeded 100,000 physical units so far this year are, in order, Resident Evil Requiem, Crimson Desert, MLB The Show 26, 007 First Light, Lego Batman, WWE 2K26, and Call of Duty Black Ops 7.
Frustrated users who prefer physical games are likely powerless to change the PlayStation maker’s course. The company has already begun winding down disc manufacturing operations at its final plant, although games released before 2028 can still receive additional print runs after the cutoff date. Furthermore, the European Union confirmed that it cannot stop console manufacturers from abandoning physical media.
Jumping ship to Microsoft will likely not be an option for long. Rumors suggest that the company is strongly considering forgoing an optical drive for its next Xbox console, expected in 2027 or 2028. However, Microsoft is also reportedly developing a method to transfer physical game copies to digital-only devices.
