Physical console games are niche
 

Digital is king

According to a new exclusive analysis of NPD Game Pulse data conducted by Ars Technica, the number of physical console game releases continues to decline even as the number of digital console games explodes.

In the United States, the number of new games available on physical media declined from 321 in 2018 to just 226 in 2021, a nearly 30 per cent.

Digital games remained relatively flat from 2018 through 2020. Then, in 2021, that number exploded to nearly 2,200 digital titles, a 64 per cent increase from 2020. New console games available exclusively as digital downloads increased from 75 per cent in 2018 to nearly 90 per cent in 2021.

This seems to suggest that the decline in new physical releases is not simply an artefact of consoles like the Xbox One and PS4 nearing the end of their lifecycles but rather publishers seem to think physical release is less relevant market for an increasing proportion of titles.

https://fudzilla.com/news/gaming/544...ames-are-niche