As Sony pushes for the end of physical games, Nintendo has confirmed a large chunk of its audience still prefers buying games on cartridges.
Sony’s decision to cease production of physical PlayStation discs after 2027 has sparked online protests and petitions, but a big question is whether (or more likely, when) Xbox and Nintendo will follow suit.
The uproar might cause Xbox to hesitate on abandoning discs for Project Helix, even as it looks to cut down console costs. Although considering Xbox barely has a presence when it comes to physical games, thanks to Xbox Game Pass, it perhaps wouldn’t cause as much of a fuss in comparison to PlayStation.
As for Nintendo, new figures suggest it will be the last of the console manufacturers to abandon physical games – even as it tries to push Game-Key cards with the Switch 2.
In Nintendo’s latest financial results, the company revealed that it made ¥132.7 billion (£623.4 million) from digital sales in the first quarter of the 2027 fiscal year – the period from April 1 to June 30, 2026. This is a 90% increase from the same quarter last year.
The proportion of digital sales during this period has increased by 2.2% year-on-year to 61.5%. By extension then, this means 38.5% came from physical sales.
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However, there are some caveats to this figure. Along with sales of download-only games and digital versions of packaged software, the 61.5% figure includes sales of DLC (including Switch 2 Edition upgrades) and Nintendo Switch Online subscriptions.
Additionally, it doesn’t include digital copies of Mario Kart World inside the Nintendo Switch 2 console bundle.
This might slightly skew the figure, but it still shows a sizeable amount of Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 players are buying physical games still. This isn’t too surprising, as the audience for the Switch is more geared towards casual players and families, in comparison to PlayStation and Xbox, who are more likely to buy games off the shelf.
The proportion of digital sales has fluctuated over the past year, from 51.2% in Q2 to 67.2% in Q4 of the 2026 fiscal year, but it shows Nintendo would be pretty foolish to ditch physical games anytime soon – unless it wants to lose a large chunk of its audience.
In the financial report, Nintendo states: ‘Digital sales increased year-on-year due to factors including an increase in sales of downloadable versions of packaged software and the depreciation of the yen.’
In comparison, Sony recently reported that 82% of all PlayStation 4 and 5 game sales were digital in its last financial quarter. It’s a much higher percentage than Nintendo, but 18% of 66.1 million game sales still isn’t a small number.
The big question is whether Nintendo’s audience will continue to buy physical games in the coming years or if Nintendo will aggressively push people towards digital. The Switch 2’s launch brought about the Game-Key cards as an alternative, while some titles are cheaper digitally than when bought physically.
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