85% of PS5 games are bought digitally - will PS6 be disc-less?

Sony reported that 85% of PS4 and PS5 games in the last quarter were purchased digitally. Amidst the record growth in digital sales, there is increasing talk that the PS6 might be released without a standard disc drive.

For the entire fiscal year, the share of digital sales reached 78% — 2% more compared to last year. For comparison: about 10 years ago, digital distribution accounted for only 19% of the market. A sharp increase occurred in 2020 during the pandemic — then the share of downloads jumped to 65% and has been increasing ever since.

Amidst the growth of digital sales, the community has once again started discussing the problem of owning purchased games. The reason was rumors about new DRM restrictions in the PlayStation Store. It later turned out that Sony only strengthened protection against fraudsters who processed refunds. Digital games themselves, as before, work offline.

However, it's too early to write off physical copies. They currently occupy about 22% of the market — which is approximately 70 million boxed copies sold per year.

According to analysts, the PS6 will still support physical media, but the optical drive will cease to be a standard part of the console.