Physical Game Sales 'Collapsed' In The UK Last Year, Says New Report
Image: Xbox

In what sure feels like another dagger to the heart of physical game fans, the UK market seems to have had a pretty rough year when it comes to physical game sales. According to Chris Dring over at VGC, demand for discs and cartridges "collapsed" in 2024 - with physical game sales dropping by a massive 35% in the UK compared to 2023.

This means that sales of physical games brought in roughly £324.4 million last year. When you compare that to gaming revenues via digital sales — £4.29 billion across console, PC and mobile — physical is starting to look like a smaller and smaller part of the games business.

However, Dring did note that there are certain factors making an impact here, one of them being a slower Nintendo Switch release schedule in the run up to Switch 2; Nintendo games tend to fare best when it comes to physical sales. 2024 also lacked a massive marquee release - something that should be rectified in 2025 when GTA 6 is scheduled to arrive on the scene.

Finally, the report added a quote from the boss of the Entertainment Retailers Association (where this data was initially sourced), saying that "after the breakneck growth of recent years, it is no surprise that the games market has slowed down". However, the ERA rep went on to say that "physical still has a role to play" in the UK games market, giving a little bit of hope to all of the physical game fans amongst us.

Thought on all of this, PXers? Tell us how you buy your games down below.

[source videogameschronicle.com]