Analysts continue to justify Sony's decision to abandon discs: physical game sales in the US plummeted to a historic low

There are no other countries on the planet, after all.

According to Circana, American consumers' spending on disc versions of games in July 2026 amounted to only $85 million — the worst monthly result since 1995, when the company began tracking the market.

Problems are also observed in the hardware segment. American spending on game consoles in July decreased by 29% year-on-year to $282 million, and unit sales of devices fell by 39%. At the same time, the average price of a new console increased by 16% to $542. Thus, part of the decline in the number of purchases may be due not only to a change in interest in consoles, but also to their significantly increased cost.

Nintendo particularly dominates the US physical market. Its platforms accounted for about 63% of physical game spending during the period under review. PlayStation received 32%, while Xbox accounted for only 4%.

The trend, however, began long before 2026. According to Circana, for the entire year 2025, Americans spent about $1.5 billion on physical games, which is 11% less than the 2024 result and is an all-time low. For comparison, in 2008, the similar figure was $11.6 billion. Even without inflation, this means a reduction of approximately 87% in 17 years.

However, it is important not to draw too far-reaching conclusions based solely on the American market. The US is the largest and extremely important region, but still only a part of the global gaming industry.

According to Newzoo's latest estimate, the global video game market reached $201.6 billion in 2025, an increase of 9.1% year-on-year. Of this amount, mobile games accounted for $113.3 billion, PC for $43.6 billion, and consoles for $44.7 billion. That is, the global gaming market as a whole is not shrinking — on the contrary, it exceeded the $200 billion mark for the first time.

The regional breakdown is even more indicative. The Asia-Pacific region accounts for about 47% of the global market, while North America accounts for about 27%. At the same time, North America showed weaker growth in 2025 — 5.7%, while the global figure was 9.1%. Europe grew by 10.7%, and the Middle East and Africa by 15%.