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Boxed games still account for 38.5% of Nintendo’s software sales, the Mario maker has said, suggesting that it has no desire to kill physical media anytime soon.
That comes in contrast to Sony, which recently raised eyebrows with its announcement that no new PlayStation 5 games would ship on disc from January 2028 onwards. While that change may still be 18 months away, new PS5 consoles and disc drive accessories are already being shipped with warning labels, cautioning consumers of the upcoming changes. The news also points to PlayStation 6 being an all-digital console too, it’s believed.
As for Xbox, while it isn’t abandoning discs entirely anytime soon, the company is reportedly developing a system of transferring game licenses from physical game discs to digital ownership.
Nintendo still enjoys a strong physical game presence, however — even if this is shrinking. In its latest financial results, Nintendo stated that its ratio of physical game sales to digital had shrunk by 2.2 points, meaning 61.5% of its games sold are now digital downloads, while 38.5% are still sold in a box.
While this percentage is growing smaller, it remains a hefty proportion — and something that sees Nintendo differ signficantly from other publishers. Only yesterday, Capcom stated that “approximately 90%” of its game sales were now digital. But the difference here makes some sense, considering the fact that Nintendo’s vast audience caters to many younger and more casual players.
This audience is more likely to buy physical games (or have them bought for them) to share among family members, or to eventually resell to take advantage of their trade-in value. Nintendo also has numerous die-hard fans, who may alternatively wish to keep their physical games as part of a larger collection.
With Switch 2 only launched last year, it seems unlikely that Nintendo will make any changes to physical game availability anytime soon, even as manufacturing and shipping increase. Instead, Nintendo has adopted something of a hybrid approach, with physical games being released on a mix of regular cartridges, cheaper Game-Key Cards, as well as digital codes in a box (which is how the Switch 2 port of Diablo 4 will reportedly arrive).
How long Nintendo will keep its sizable physical games presence over the coming generation will be interesting to see. While the company will likely make no rash decisions, it has recently begun incentivizing digital purchases for new Switch 2 games by making them around $10 cheaper than their boxed counterparts.
Upcoming Switch 2 game launches include Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave on September 17, Switch Sports Resort on October 22, and the new Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake before the end of this year. 2027 titles already announced include Xenoblade Genesis, plus Pokémon Winds and Pokémon Waves.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky@tomphillipseg.bsky.social
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