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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Digital sales percentages per platform

This forum question is brought on per a discussion elsewhere. 

 

Basically the argument in question began over the use of data on Switch versus other platform sales, with the argument consisting of 'all the numbers you have are physical, and most of the sales on the other platforms are digital. Of course it looks better for Nintendo'. 

 

...SO, time to see the exacts. Do PS4 and Xbox gamers buy a majority (arguer flashed 80%) of their games digitally? How does the Switch compare? Etc, etc, etc so I may know more about the argument's validity. 



The Democratic Nintendo fan....is that a paradox? I'm fond of one of the more conservative companies in the industry, but I vote Liberally and view myself that way 90% of the time?

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To know that we would need to know the full software numbers of each console, and they haven't told us that in a while. I do buy most of my games retail, digital only seems like a pretty poor value proposition to me. What could be an interesting point of discussion is the factors of digital purchases on the Switch. On one hand, it's a handheld, so for portability's sake digital makes sense to allow playing all of your games, but on the other hand, the console has quite a reduced memory for that, so it makes sense to support physical format, at least for the bigger games.



You know it deserves the GOTY.

Come join The 2018 Obscure Game Monthly Review Thread.

"Sales for Sony's Game & Network Services division increased 18% to 1,943.8 billion yen for the quarter. The company attributed this in large part to an increase in PS4 software sales, which were up to 52 million units from 50.6 million during the same period last year. That included a major uptick in digital sales, as 43% of games sold were digital, as compared with 37% the year prior. For the full year, 32% of full games were sold digitally."

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ps4-sales-hit-79-million-nearly-topping-ps3/1100-6458569/

For Nintendo we would have to use their sales numbers and compare them to vgchartz. Here's a link https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/.

So as of March 31st

75% of Switch sales were physical and 25% digital

87.3% of 3DS sales were physical and 12.7% digital

90% of Wii U sales were physical and 10% digital.

We dont have anything from MS but Xbox usually has a higger digital to physical ratio compared to Nintendo and Sony. With their play anywhere program and backwards compatibility i'd assume its around 45-50%.



Most of the games I get on PS4 are physical copies. I have around 20 games on the system, and just four of them are digital, and two of those are just versions of Flower and Journey I could download for free because I've bought them on PS3 years ago.



Dunno about X1 or Switch...
But I remember seeing claims of about 50% of sales (don't remember revenue or quantity) was digital (and for that you would have something about 30% of retail games digital 70% physical and of course 100% of PSN games being digital)
Hope this help you on order of magnitude.



duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=8808363

Mr Puggsly: "Hehe, I said good profit. You said big profit. Frankly, not losing money is what I meant by good. Don't get hung up on semantics"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9008994

Azzanation: "PS5 wouldn't sold out at launch without scalpers."

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jason1637 said:

"Sales for Sony's Game & Network Services division increased 18% to 1,943.8 billion yen for the quarter. The company attributed this in large part to an increase in PS4 software sales, which were up to 52 million units from 50.6 million during the same period last year. That included a major uptick in digital sales, as 43% of games sold were digital, as compared with 37% the year prior. For the full year, 32% of full games were sold digitally."

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ps4-sales-hit-79-million-nearly-topping-ps3/1100-6458569/

For Nintendo we would have to use their sales numbers and compare them to vgchartz. Here's a link https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/.

So as of March 31st

75% of Switch sales were physical and 25% digital

87.3% of 3DS sales were physical and 12.7% digital

90% of Wii U sales were physical and 10% digital.

We dont have anything from MS but Xbox usually has a higger digital to physical ratio compared to Nintendo and Sony. With their play anywhere program and backwards compatibility i'd assume its around 45-50%.

For microsoft it is X% physical and YYY hours played played (with X not being reveled, but some getting the total number of players disclosed for the newer games). With the X varying to make sales look bigger  depending on VGC sales and how much a fan want to defend the game and increase sales.//////

But joking aside, it is possible that Xbox have the larger percentage of digital because of play anywhere and now gamepass.



duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=8808363

Mr Puggsly: "Hehe, I said good profit. You said big profit. Frankly, not losing money is what I meant by good. Don't get hung up on semantics"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9008994

Azzanation: "PS5 wouldn't sold out at launch without scalpers."

I can only tell you my PS4 physical to digital ratio which is 59 physical to 36 digital.



jason1637 said:

"Sales for Sony's Game & Network Services division increased 18% to 1,943.8 billion yen for the quarter. The company attributed this in large part to an increase in PS4 software sales, which were up to 52 million units from 50.6 million during the same period last year. That included a major uptick in digital sales, as 43% of games sold were digital, as compared with 37% the year prior. For the full year, 32% of full games were sold digitally."

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ps4-sales-hit-79-million-nearly-topping-ps3/1100-6458569/

For Nintendo we would have to use their sales numbers and compare them to vgchartz. Here's a link https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/.

So as of March 31st

75% of Switch sales were physical and 25% digital

87.3% of 3DS sales were physical and 12.7% digital

90% of Wii U sales were physical and 10% digital.

We dont have anything from MS but Xbox usually has a higger digital to physical ratio compared to Nintendo and Sony. With their play anywhere program and backwards compatibility i'd assume its around 45-50%.

That all sounds about right. All I saw so far was that digital ratio even on PS4 is still below 50%, although it gets closer. 43% seems about right. 25% for Switch puts it roughly at half the rate as the PS4, which also sounds about right. It all will heavily depend on the title in question though.



3DS-FC: 4511-1768-7903 (Mii-Name: Mnementh), Nintendo-Network-ID: Mnementh, Switch: SW-7706-3819-9381 (Mnementh)

my greatest games: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

10 years greatest game event!

bets: [peak year] [+], [1], [2], [3], [4]

100% physical on all platforms (which is switch and ps4 this gen I guess)



 

 

Mnementh said:
jason1637 said:

"Sales for Sony's Game & Network Services division increased 18% to 1,943.8 billion yen for the quarter. The company attributed this in large part to an increase in PS4 software sales, which were up to 52 million units from 50.6 million during the same period last year. That included a major uptick in digital sales, as 43% of games sold were digital, as compared with 37% the year prior. For the full year, 32% of full games were sold digitally."

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ps4-sales-hit-79-million-nearly-topping-ps3/1100-6458569/

For Nintendo we would have to use their sales numbers and compare them to vgchartz. Here's a link https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/.

So as of March 31st

75% of Switch sales were physical and 25% digital

87.3% of 3DS sales were physical and 12.7% digital

90% of Wii U sales were physical and 10% digital.

We dont have anything from MS but Xbox usually has a higger digital to physical ratio compared to Nintendo and Sony. With their play anywhere program and backwards compatibility i'd assume its around 45-50%.

That all sounds about right. All I saw so far was that digital ratio even on PS4 is still below 50%, although it gets closer. 43% seems about right. 25% for Switch puts it roughly at half the rate as the PS4, which also sounds about right. It all will heavily depend on the title in question though.

On PS4 1st or 2nd year digital ratio was lower than 25% as far as I remember.



duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=8808363

Mr Puggsly: "Hehe, I said good profit. You said big profit. Frankly, not losing money is what I meant by good. Don't get hung up on semantics"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9008994

Azzanation: "PS5 wouldn't sold out at launch without scalpers."