Physical sales of video games in 2023 exceeded expectations

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A new chart shared with data from the GSD and GfK has good news for retailers: Despite what it feels like, consumers still purchase many physical games. The majority are digital purchases, but breaking down the numbers of the top 20 sellers of last year reveals some encouraging information.

EA Sports FC 24, 2023’s top seller, had a digital/physical split of 67%/33%, while Hogwarts Legacy, the second best-seller, had a split of 56%/44%. Yes, physical sales will never be what they were two generations ago, but in an online-focused world, having nearly half of all sales for a title be physical is still a reality.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, with a 69%/31% split, was more online-focused, while Grand Theft Auto 5, which has spanned multiple console generations, had a more severe split of 71%/29%. The most physical friendly release of the year in the top 5 was Sony’s Spider-Man 2, with 46%/54%.

Go lower on the list, and another Sony title beats Spider-Man 2, God of War: Ragnarök. The PlayStation exclusive sold 24% of its copies in 2023 digitally, with an impressive 76% physically. The only game with a better split is Microsoft’s Minecraft, at 20%/80%, but that comes with a caveat.

Nintendo doesn’t share digital data, so the sales information for Minecraft, a major seller on the Nintendo Switch, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Wonder, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe are incomplete.

Taking Nintendo’s titles out of the picture still leaves an impressive 38% of the top 20 sellers of 2023 were sold physically. As companies do away with physical media, the demand still stays strong.

This is great news going into 2024, as consumers are starting to push back against the digital future and embracing physical copies. As companies do away with physical media, the demand only grows stronger.