Games are increasingly rarely sold on disc. Instead, digital change is advancing. A new statistic breaks down the digital share of individual games.
The Entertainment and Retail Association has published a ranking of games that sold the most in the UK last year.
While the UK charts are not uncommon, this time they provide an unusual look at the distribution of sales, which are increasingly moving towards a digital form of distribution.
However, the differences are huge. While some games like “NBA 2K23” were largely successful in the digital stores, other titles ended up primarily on disc in the console. “God of War: Ragnarok” can be mentioned as an example.
38 percent of games were sold on disc
“EA Sports FC 24†was the best-selling game in the UK last year. Almost 2.4 million customers accessed the football simulation – around two thirds chose the digital version.
In the case of “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” it is similar, because of a total of 1.24 million sales, 69 percent were processed via online shops.
“Hogwarts Legacy,” the second-placed game in the charts, had a slight digital advantage for a roughly 1:1 split, while “Marvel's Spider-Man 2,” released in October, had even more could be put on disk. The digital share was 46.4 percent last year. “God of War: Ragnarök” only landed on consoles as a download in 24.3 percent of cases.
How do you buy your games in 2024?
Primarily on Disk 44%, 934 votes
934 votes 44%
934 votes – 44% of all votes
Exclusively digital 17%, 359 votes
359 votes 17%
359 votes – 17% of all votes
Exclusively on disk 15%, 325 votes
325 votes 15%
325 votes – 15% of all votes
Primarily digital 12%, 265 votes
265 votes 12%
265 votes – 12% of all votes
Roughly equally divided on disc and digital 12%, 254 votes
254 votes 12%
254 votes – 12% of all votes
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Nintendo does not provide digital numbers, so Switch game sales are based only on physical sales. Therefore they cannot be included in the overall ranking. Overall, it shows that only 38 percent of the top 20 games were sold in retail stores.
Below are the top 20, listed first Gamesindustry.biz appeared:
SpielGesamtPhysischDigitalAnteil digitalEA Sports FC 242.395.996785.8731.610.12367.2%Hogwarts Legacy1.921.143847.0401.074.10355.9%Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 31.238.683388.023850.66068.7%FIFA 23747.902286.748461.15461.7%Spider-Man 2654.731350.773303.95846.4%Grand Theft Auto 5615.677178.372437.30571%Star Wars Jedi: Survivor553.323218.541334.78260.5%Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom498.159498.159N/AN/ADiablo 4442.87467.600375.27484.7%Super Mario Bros. Wonder429.686429.686N/AN/ARed Dead Redemption 2411.72568.871342.85483.3%Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2378.889130.511248.12765.5%Mario Kart 8: Deluxe357.889357.889N/AN/AAssassin’s Creed Mirage352.228171.658180.57051.3%Resident Evil 4321.117144.675176.44254.9%God of War: Ragnarok261.303197.82363.48024.3%Lego Star Wars: Skywalker Saga254.623160.98593.63836.8%F1 23248.99762.045186.95275.1%NBA 2K23246.15431.698214.45687.1%Minecraft245.913195.58450.32920.5%Physische Daten GfK. Digitale Daten GSD – ohne Nintendo.
Do disk drives have a future?
It remains to be seen whether future consoles will still have a disk drive. Microsoft could have an all-digital model of the Xbox Series X in the works. Recent rumors suggested an announcement would be coming soon:
Sony's latest concept that comes with the PS5 Slim* was introduced, forms an intermediate path. Customers can decide which distribution channel they prefer and purchase the console with or without a disk drive – without being bound to this decision later. Because it can be removed or purchased separately as an additional accessory.
Further news about UK charts.
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