Sony’s plan to stop pressing PS5 game discs hasn’t stopped players buying them. Estimates from Ampere Analysis suggest 35% of Marvel’s Wolverine launch sales were the disc version, according to figures published by The Game Business.
Ampere ranks the Insomniac Games exclusive as the second-best-selling PS5 game of September, behind EA Sports FC 27, at around 2.16 million units. Polygon’s reading of the data puts the physical share at roughly 756,000 copies. These are analyst estimates, not Sony figures.
Europe leans physical
GSD data shows a higher physical split in Europe, where 51% of launch sales came from the boxed version. The picture varies sharply by country. Two-thirds of UK sales were digital, while in France more than two-thirds were physical.
Wolverine wasn’t the only story-driven release with strong disc sales. Silent Hill: Townfall sold over 45% of its copies physically in September, The Blood of Dawnwalker on PS5 reached 36%, and Onimusha 30%. All are single-player games, a category where collectors tend to favour a shelf copy.
The disc phase-out
Sony announced this summer that PS5 game discs won’t be produced for games launching after January 2028. The move drew heavy criticism from fans of physical games, but Sony said it would “cautiously move forward” with the plan. The Ampere numbers don’t show whether that decision will change, and Sony hasn’t commented on them.
Analyst Joost van Dreunen told The Game Business the data shows consumers remain attached to physical versions. “People have a need to collect,” he said. “The industry is ready to move on, but not so fast.”
Former PlayStation US boss Shawn Layden made a similar case recently. He estimated that around 80% of players download games, but argued the remaining 20% are “the most faithful of the faithful”, the buyers who often purchase two copies of a title.
Wolverine is also the game that debuted Sony’s QSSR AI upscaling on PS5, which makes it a showcase title for the console’s current hardware. Physical releases are also still arriving from other publishers, such as Forza Horizon 6 on PS5 in January.
What it means for UAE players
The Ampere and GSD data cover global and European markets. It doesn’t break down sales in the UAE or wider Middle East, so the regional disc share is unknown.
Does Sony still sell PS5 discs?
Yes. According to Sony’s announcement, disc production ends only for games launching after January 2028, so current and near-term releases like Wolverine still ship physically.
Are these official sales numbers?
No. The figures are estimates from Ampere Analysis and GSD, published by The Game Business. Sony hasn’t released its own digital and physical split for the game.
