If given the choice to buy a game in physical format where it can be installed via DVD/Blu-ray where it comes with a box and maybe a manual, or a game that’s digitally available where you can purchase and download it straightaway, which would you choose? If you answered digital, know that you are in the majority at least as far as the US market is concerned.
According to recent figures released by the ESA, it seems that over in the US, digital game sales are outpacing that of physical sales. As you can see in the graph above, it shows that in 2016, digital sales accounted for 74% of total sales. This is versus 2010 where digital sales accounted for 31% and was clearly in the minority.
In fact we expect that as time moves forward, the discrepancy will only increase. We doubt that physical sales will ever go away completely simply because there are gamers who do love collecting physical copies of games, and then there are also special collector’s edition of games that are bundled with extra goodies like figures, soundtracks, artbooks, and more that will also appeal to certain gamers.
That being said, the numbers aren’t broken down by platform or device, so assume that they cover all platforms and devices that gamers can play games on, such as PC, console, mobile, and etc. You can read the full report via the ESA’s website.
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