Physical Game Sales End Four-Year Decline With a Modest 0.1% Growth in 2025

Unlike all other segments of the gaming industry, which saw double and even triple-digit growth, physical video games have been struggling for quite a while now, with revenue and user spending stuck in the red for years. Although this negative trend was briefly paused during the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, the last four years have brought another steady decline. Now, the market is finally showing signs of life, but the projected growth remains quite modest.

According to data presented by Skinsluck.com, physically sold video games are expected to end 2025 with only a 0.1% growth, marking the first positive year since 2020.

The Market to See Slow but Steady 0.5% Revenue Growth Through 2030

Despite steady demand from traditional gamers and collectors, the physical video game sales have dropped by almost 30% since 2017, reaching around $11 billion last year. This negative trend was triggered by a major shift in the gaming industry, with most players turning to digital downloads for their speed, convenience, and easy access. Gaming companies also began focusing on online sales because they're cheaper and more profitable. At the same time, cloud gaming and services like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus became hugely popular, so even fewer people needed physical copies. This perfect storm of events pushed physical video games, once the heart of gaming, into the background.

While all other segments of the gaming industry surged, physical video games struggled, with revenue falling in six of the past seven years. Even during the COVID-19-fueled sales boom in 2020, sales rose by a modest 2.9%. Although the market finally started showing some signs of life, the projected growth rates are far from what could be considered a real recovery.

According to a Statista Market Insights survey, physical video game sales will end 2025 with $11.3 billion in revenue, only 0.1% more than last year. Although the latest market projections show slow but steady growth throughout 2030, the annual increase will remain modest at 0.5%, with revenue hoovering around the $11 billion mark.  The main reason for such a weak recovery is the rising number of gamers who still buy physical games but spend less and less per copy. According to Statista, the number of people buying physical editions will rise from 1.15 billion to 1.21 billion between 2025 and 2030, but the average spending will drop from $9.81 to just $9.57 in this period.

The flat growth will also affect the market share of physical video games. Once a core of an authentic gaming experience, physical titles have become a minor revenue stream, accounting for only 2% of the total gaming industry value in 2025. By 2030, their share will drop to 1.5%.

Physical Video Games Are by Far the Slowest-Growing Segment in the Gaming Industry

And while physical game sales remain flat, other segments of the gaming industry continue to grow. In comparison, mobile game revenue is expected to jump by 30%, rising from $126 billion to $164 billion by the end of the decade.

Gaming networks, online games, and download games will see similar increases, generating $5.5 billion, $37.2 billion, and $29.3 billion by 2030, respectively. The Statista market projections also show that in-game advertising, gaming hardware sales, and the overall market will rise between 40% and 45%, while cloud-gaming remains the fastest-growing segment with a massive 175% revenue increase over the next five years. All these figures also show that physical copies are the only segment struggling, while the rest of the market continues to thrive.