Digital vs Physical Copies - Pandemic Playing a Part in Threatening CDs?

Another day, another discussion. This pandemic has really thrown the gaming industry into a weird spot as trends start to change throughout. One thing I've wanted to discuss for a while is the relationship between physical and digital games and how the pandemic has affected it. I'm sure you can guess the outcome of the past few months, but I've got some numbers to back it up too. Let's dive right in. 

For this discussion, we'll be focusing on console sales as it's uncontested that digital sales dominate PC gaming due to the ease of use thanks to stores like Steam. 

Last year, sales for PS4 for the time-span of April to June 2019 added up to 49.8 million games sold. From these, the split came as follows: 

• Digital - 26.4 Million
• Physical - 23.4 Million

A pretty even split, right? It's all because for consoles, there's a massive second hand sale market, which I can vouch for myself. Almost all of the games I buy on PS4 go through this system - I buy them second hand for a lower price, play through it and when done with it, resell it on FaceBook Marketplace for an even lower price. Besides that, the ability to share games on consoles is made easy thanks to standardised hardware - it's harder to share physical copies of PCs due to this. 

Another point, besides price and accessibility, is the limited storage on consoles. While on PC you can throw in a handful of internal and external drives, most console users are limited to either a 500GB or 1TB of storage, which may sound like a lot - but with games like Call of Duty Warzone and Red Dead Redemption 2 that space quickly fills up. That's why physical sales make sense as you can uninstall the software but have it installed in a moments notice thanks to the CD. 

Looking at COVID-19 Numbers 

Here is where things get interesting as the 50:50 split goes uneven. In the same time span a year later, making it April to June 2020, a total of 91 million games were sold. Here's how the split fared this time: 

• Digital - 67.3 Million 
• Physical - 23.7 Million 

Yep, time to whip out a calculator for some quick math. Digital sales made almost 75% of total game sales thanks to a growth of 154% from last year. 

Naturally, yes, the pandemic had something to do with this. However, something tells me that it was somewhat coincidental and the market shift was bound to happen soon in the console department. Such a drastic shift will affect the next-generation of consoles. 

Justifying Digital-Only Consoles 

As you're all aware, the PS5 will be releasing in two main forms - one with a disc reader and the other without. Following our analysis of the numbers, it's easy to see why. Why not use the space for a disc reader to improve other aspects of the hardware if it's not being used? I'm glad though, that Sony has given buyers a choice. 

One thing many people overlook, however, is the fact that Microsoft already invested in this department back in 2018 when they released an Xbox One S Console digital version. However, some might say they jumped the gun in this regard. 

Game developers such as EA and Take-Two have also come out to publically affirm this statement - digital games are definitely taking over the console game market. 

Is this solely an effect of the pandemic or was this shift always bound to happen? That's what I'm curious to know. 

Let us know what you think on the matter in the comments section below!