Nintendo has taken a clear lead in U.S. physical video game sales this year, making up 63% of new boxed game purchases, according to new industry data. PlayStation is at 32%, and Xbox is a little over 4%.
Those numbers point to a boxed market that’s getting smaller while leaning harder toward Nintendo. Switch and Switch 2 owners are still picking up cartridges, whether it’s for collecting, lending games out, giving them as gifts, or simply because that’s how they’ve always bought them.
Xbox has gone farther than anyone else in leaving discs behind. The same industry data says 91% of Xbox software sales are now digital, compared with 78% on Sony’s PlayStation 5 and 53% on Nintendo. That also helps explain why publishers keep pushing downloads: they skip about 35% to 50% in manufacturing, shipping, and retail costs.
If you’re still buying physical games, this is a trend to keep an eye on. U.S. spending on boxed games has dropped by about 86%, from $11.5 billion in 2009 to roughly $1.6 billion in 2026, based on the industry data. Nintendo Switch 2 has given the category a small lift, though, and delivered its first year-over-year increase in 17 years.
You can already see where this is going. Reports say Sony is aiming for January 2028 to end new PlayStation discs, Grand Theft Auto 6 is widely expected to come in a box with a download code, and physical diehards are still making the same case for ownership, resale, preservation, and a safeguard against storefront shutdowns or licensing changes.
Author: Jesús Bosque
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