Europe Shows Up for Physical Games, 51% of Wolverine's PS5 Sales for Disc Version – Push Square

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Europe Shows Up for Physical Games, 51% of Wolverine's PS5 Sales for Disc Version – Push Square

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There was a disc, so they bought it
Sony is yet to share official Marvel’s Wolverine sales data, but firms worldwide have begun sharing their own points and projected figures.
And, according to GSD data shared by The Game Business, physical copies accounted for 35% of the PS5 game’s sales. If you narrow the data to Europe, however, it shows how the continent is continuing to support physical media in the face of Sony’s decision to halt the production of boxed PlayStation games from January 2028.
It reports that 51% of Marvel’s Wolverine sales in Europe were for the physical version.
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On the data, analyst Joost van Dreunen added in an interview with The Game Business: “People have a need to collect. That’s where physical sales are still incredibly relevant for the consumer market. The industry is ready to move on, but not so fast. This is increasingly a big part of it.”
Ampere Analysis also reports Marvel’s Wolverine has sold 2.16 million units across both digital and physical outlets.
Going back to a more worldwide look, Ampere Analysis reports 45% of Silent Hill: Townfall sales were for the physical version, boxed copies of The Blood of Dawnwalker made up 36% of total sales, and 30% of Onimusha: Way of the Sword sales were physical.

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Again, we don’t know official sales data for the latest PS5 exclusive yet, but other reports have made Wolverine the biggest PlayStation physical launch of 2026 in the UK. At the time of writing, only Resident Evil Requiem and 007 First Light recorded stronger starts in terms of boxed copies.
Sony continues to stick to its plan to eliminate physical PlayStation games from January 2028, as fan protests continue, but are much quieter compared to the weeks that followed its initial announcement. In Europe, at least, PlayStation fans are sticking to those PS5 discs.
Are you one of them? Let us know in the comments below.
[source thegamebusiness.com]
About Liam Croft

Liam grew up with a PlayStation controller in his hands and a love for Metal Gear Solid. Nowadays, he’s found playing the latest and greatest PS5 games as well as supporting Derby County. That last detail is his downfall.
Comments 65

Nice to see some people actually walk the walk and not just talk the talk when it comes to physical discs

The sales numbers for audio CDs are stabilising, especially because of K-Pop. Young people learn the benefits of a tangible product in a cloudy world, which is not the ability to share or resell, but emotional connection.
I hope that Sony learns this again. Microsoft sees an unexpected opportunity to differentiate Xbox in the next generation!

51 percent. Here’s even more proof, that when all things are equal, that discs still matter. Love to see it.
Just a reminder that Sony want to move you to digital because from their perspecive they see almost all the $70 in a digital sale whereas they only see about 65%, or $45.50, on a physical sale. (approx 30% to retail, 5% to manufacturing and shipping)
Hence don’t believe them when they say physical is dying, they have reasons to misinform and make it seem smaller than it is.

Coming from a man who finds discs more attractive than people, it should be noted that discs usually sell best at a game’s launch. Sales that come later down the road tend to trend towards digital.
HOWEVER. Is that not a bit of a warning sign to Sony? That a large section of the audience who likes buying games as soon as possible tends to buy physical? The type of people you need to get on your side in order to try and sell your £1000+ console?

I guess it's safe to say physical games is still very healthy in EU. And i bet plenty of buyers are coming from Gen-Z who also one if not the major reasons for CD music, DVD, VHS, and cassete tapes revival.

"People have a need to collect."
No, they don't. They have a desire to collect.

@themightyant Physical media has never been so strong, in the market presence of things. Games, CD'S, Bluray's and even Vinyl are still massive in popularity as I buy a fair few of these formats each year. Sony are just making figures up just so they can control where money goes ie games second hand market doesn't make them any profit. But yeah physical media dying? You're having a laugh Sony, it's never been more alive today than ever. Long live the disc, I say!

My son went physical he is a university student so he could play and then sell for cash, I think he spent £20 on the game once he sold it.
I went digital as have been for at least ten years.

That’s huge! I know people keep saying that Sony won’t change their minds but I’m inclined to disagree. I just cannot see how they would be happy (potentially) leaving 50% of launch copies sold on the table.
I have yet to buy the game myself but when I do so it will be physical.

But according to Sony physical disc sales are insignificant. Maybe we dont get to see ALL the relevant sales data? Maybe if they produced more discs they could sell more discs? Maybe there are other reasons for the all digital push?

Who cares? They're going in a year and a bit so this makes no difference really in the big picture.

Pretty much all of those 51% in Europe will also have paid less than buying from Sony digitally, good on them.

Perhaps to make sure games have a proper initial period to make revenue, like films do in the theater, games should release digital first, and then later on go to disc. Just like films. At least this way, the losses the studios make to the second hand market might be offset a bit, and might incentivize Sony to keep physical.
Although if what @ShadowRJ says is true, then that would complicate it. It really is a tough business model for developers, that they dont have a guaranteed revenue making period though, without immediately having to compete with second hand sales

Sony do what Nintendo do, sell the game cheaper on the digital store front than the physical cost.
You make so much more money digital and don’t have case and discs cost and the seller percentage.
You just dam ducking greedy like most businesses.

2.1m for a £300m aaa blockbuster game ain’t going to cut it. It will be running on pc by this time next week as well.

@NorrinRadd Absolutely spot on. Sony don't realise people like myself and others love to own stuff as it's nice to have them on a shelf to show something for your money and all. Digital will never have that something for your money ownership stance on things. Do I have a vast collection of media from games to Blu ray's on my shelf, you bet I do guys. I love having something to show for my cash. I do buy digital games if it's something I know that will never go to disc, but in general physical every time for me. Physical media will always be wanted by those that cherish having a collection.

@Jey887 They dont leave 50% of the launch copies on the table, because an amount of these people wouldve bought the game digitally if there hadnt been a physical copy. And we dont know how big this number is.
It does show though that a lot of people still buy physical if given the chance.

@DaveHero75 To be clear I do NOT think Sony are making figures up, but I DO think they are showing figures that aren’t very representive of how big physical media is when all things are equal. i.e. on AAA releases that release day 1 on disc and digital.
So what if “only” 15% – 20% of all games on PS5 are physical, that number on its own isn’t very useful when many games only release digitally. What is more useful is what percentage of PS5 owners sometimes still buy discs and this is likely around 50%.
Sony are being deceptive showing the low numbers to try and convince people physical is dead, but that’s not the same as lying.

Untitled

@DaveHero75
Maybe they do realise people like to own stuff. Maybe they just dont want people to own stuff!

Boxmonkey wrote:
2.1m for a £300m aaa blockbuster game ain’t going to cut it. It will be running on pc by this time next week as well.
It's only been out just over 3 weeks mate, give it a chance.
For reference The Last of Us had sold "just" 3.4 million in it's first 3 weeks which at the time was the fastest selling PS3 game that year.

Well done, Europe! 👏😄 PS Staff like Sammy will be triggered, but who cares, lol. 😜
Read the room, Sony. Gamers still want physical media. 💾💿🧐

but but the narrative sony are spinning is its a small minority. they are deliberately manipulating stats to justify their money making decisions

@trev666 You talk as if they have to justify their decisions though. They’re a company, they can do whatever the ***** they want within the law and consumers either continue to buy their products and services, or not.
This idea that Sony are under some kind of legal or moral obligation to justify, to use your own words, ‘their money making decisions’ is as absurd as your sentence implies.

@themightyant
They need Mario odyssey numbers 30 plus million sales, also on a lesser investment cost.
Sony as a company are getting arrogant and need a chop down.
Their studios is another story, I can appreciate their games and artistic development that’s goes into the games.

Bought physical copies of Wolverine and Silent Hill. Absolutely 0% chance I buy those games digitally at launch

There's a huge misconception that Sony is killing physical games because they don't sell enough. It's literally the opposite. Physical games aren't dying fast enough for Sony's liking so they're dropping the axe on em.

I’m still buying physical as much as I can and will continue until the last day.

@AI-Generation They do not need mario odysesey numbers (30+ million) LMAO. Based on the Insomniac leak for Spider-man 2 they probably need around 4+ million to break even. It’s been 3 weeks. Perhaps it will never get there, but trying to call it after around 24 days is foolish.
Sony as a company are getting arrogant and need a chop down.
Perhaps. But that has nothing to do with making up nonsense.

Theoretically, this isn't in and of itself a good sign. It could also mean that the game wasn't only really bought by the hard-core fans who still want disks. By itself it's not enough of a data point, however, 2+ million is decent enough that 35% physical is solid numbers, and I expect if every million+ copies sold game did similarly then physical would very much be here to stay.

Linear games tend to sell physical a lot more, why? One and done, resell for money back. Another reason why Sony wants to stop discs.

Do away with the choice of Physical disks Sony, by my simple maths that makes profits halved explain that at your next shareholders meeting.

51% of sales are physical….that's 6 discs sold. Nice

@themightyant
I was joking about Mario odyssey 30 million.
It meant more from it would be great if it did sell that much.
Due to Sony would then give more permissions to make single player campaign games and invest more on maybe some game diversity risk taking.

Physical media in gaming is still very much viable, despite the narrative that Sony is trying to put out there.

@themightyant
I mean imagine is GOY and wolverine sold 30 million each, the profit made would be staggering and hopefully encourage more investment in big AAA Sony studio games.
The current situation is different due to a lot lower sales, which in turn probably makes Sony think are these big AAA games worth the risk.

So, where are the physical deniers saying no one buys physical discs anymore?
Maybe time to notice you're being manipulated by a corpo that wants monopoly?

This will be no surprise to Sony, they know there is still some demand for physical games. After all, there couldnt have been that number of physical purchased without Sony doing their forecasting and deciding to print and make those discs available.
But they have made their decision to end physical regardless.

I can’t blame them tbh, I’d want to make some money back as well by trading it in. 20 hours one and done isn’t exactly value for money. I just finished Runescapes story and that was 125 hours with more on the way. I’ll play W9lverine digitally one day but it will be in a sale or when it hits Extra. Good news but I doubt it will change their mind, if anything they will see it as lost money as most probably would of bought it anyway if we already had all digital.

Though I doubt it'll change anything, still getting discs whenever possible.

They would have sold more digital copies if the game was digital only. But it works both ways: there are people, like me, who would rather NOT buy a game at all if it was digital only.

@ShadowRJ It should also be noted that many publishers lead with digital only releases with a physical release lagging months or years behind.

@arto Obviously it would sell more if it was the only option. Watch Sony use GTA6 as a reason why people don't want physical releases. Lol

@TheSingularity Why do you sound so triggered by this? You're strawmanning hard by bringing up the "legal or moral obligation to justify" angle. No one said that but you.

@Boxmonkey the 2 million sales figure was after two days of release!! It will be more now.

Discs ended for me in 2013 lol

@ShadowRJ Coming from a man who finds discs more attractive than people

@themightyant
Was there ever any doubt that the move to digital was for anything other than financial gain?
Even 25 years ago when iTunes really popularised digital distribution, followed 2 years later by Steam on PC, the cynic in me knew it was for no other reason than pushing consumers towards an all digital future, under the guise of convenience, to make more profit for the content platforms and publishers.

Problem is how many of that 51% plans to stop buying games altogether when the physical option no longer exists? I’m betting zero.

If we’re being forced to embrace digital only, I think it’s only fair that we also fully embrace AI. These studios could save millions if they fire 95% of the human artists/creatives. And Sony would make even more money. It’s where things are headed after all and we shouldn’t stand in the way of progress.

A good time for Sony to reiterate their intention to kill physical games.
"100% of digital only games were sold as digital!"

Just back playing this week after boycotting PS… playing MGS Peacewalker… on disc

@Nalim That's why I put 'potentially' in parenthesis. Admittedly that word is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Long May this continue even if Sony decide to stop physical discs because that means they will lose all those sales.

@Stwert of course it’s obvious it’s for financial gain. But it is always worth pointing out that Sony has a vested interest in trying to make our physical is tiny, when it isn’t.

@themightyant they need 6 million full price sales to keep the license agreement. They aren’t getting anywhere near that

45€ new on Amazon mere weeks after release. Only on physical!

Hopefully Playstation is seeing these numbers and will go back on cutting physical discs

I recently played this at a friend's house and it is really, really mediocre. Not bad by any means but just really meh.
The footage reminded me of Ninja Gaiden 3 and playing it reminded me of Ninja Gaiden 3.
Where on Earth did they spend the budget?

@Boxmonkey how do you know? It’s been 3 weeks. As I said TLoU has sold 3.4 million in that same timeframe it went on to sell 8 million on PS3 and another 18 million+ on PS4 according to the insomniac leak. Do I think it will sell as well as that? No. But it could potentially sell over 6 million with ease over a few years. Why are you so determined to see it fail after just a few days on sale? Weird.

@Boxmonkey why would PC players want to play this? I keep hearing its the worst game of the year from them.

Honestly, Sony could have put out any first party game and it would have sold a fair amount on physical after all this. But, ultimately, it's not going to matter in the long run.

@DoubleDip They bought Days Gone, and that game had even more middling reception than Wolverine got.

Whatever i can buy on physical, I will. Blood of the dawnwalker is the current one. Come on, we in EU stand our ground. US, join us.

Borrowed a friends PS5, and gave Wolverine a chance. Played about 3 hours until I shut it off, and returned it to him.
What is the point of the QTE sequences? Even if I accidentally pushed the wrong button, it still reacted like I did nothing wrong. I had to check the settings, to see if the auto function was turned off, and it was.
The combat feels very stiff. And at times, like it's almost playing itself, with all the scripted animations. Wish it had the flow of Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry instead.
Comical seeing how Logan can cut through steel, but only sometimes. You make more destruction to a car, in the bonus stage of Final Fight.
The game just feels rushed and unfinished.
Their first Spider-Man game was their last truly great game. This was just embarrassingly generic.
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Game Profile
Title:
Marvel’s Wolverine
System:
PlayStation 5
Publisher:
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Developer:
Insomniac Games
Genre:
Action, Adventure
Players:
1
Release Date:
PlayStation 5
Reviews:
Marvel’s Wolverine (PS5) – The Ultimate Wolverine Simulator
Guide:
Marvel’s Wolverine Guide: 100% Collectibles Walkthrough
Buy Store Wallet Top Up: