Many gamers have been lamenting Sony’s recent decision to halt sales of physical game discs in 2028. However, new data revealed by Circana analyst Mat Piscatella highlights how years of stark economic trends helped lead Sony to that decision.

The graph of US physical game sales since 2003 paints a clear picture: sales peaked in June 2009 with 297 million units and have been on a steady decline ever since. In the last year, only 37 million physical units were sold across the US.

Familiarity once bred contentment; as recently as 2008, over 100 PlayStation games each sold at least 100,000 physical copies. Now, only seven have reached that milestone in 2026. The top-selling physical PlayStation game has managed a paltry 275,000 units so far this year.

There are some small signs of hope if you squint: US aggregate spending on physical video games was up 4% year-to-date as of May. But this is just a blip following 16 straight years of sizable declines in physical game spending, from $11.5 billion in 2009 to a mere $1.6 billion by May.

SUNI wonders if the era of physical discs will soon become a distant memory as more gamers embrace digital downloads and cloud gaming.