Physical disc copies of Resident Evil: Requiem on PlayStation consoles may have been more popular than all versions of the game on Xbox, according to a new report, while also uncovering a trove of other physical sales statistics. The information comes from Alinea Analytics analyst Rhys Elliot, who published a newsletter breaking down the top PlayStation games by physical copies sold. By Elliot’s estimates, Resident Evil: Requiem sold 1.3 million physical copies, representing 15 percent of the game’s total revenue and 30.2 percent of its PlayStation revenue. Physical copies generated 1.8 times more revenue on PlayStation than all copies sold (digital and physical) on Xbox, the newsletter reports. To view this content, please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings Here’s the launch trailer for Resident Evil: Requiem. Watch it on YouTube Meanwhile, physical sales of 007 First Light, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced and Crimson Desert are down 30 percent of their relevant totals, according to this report. This makes physical sales a minority, but if the numbers are accurate, it shows that they still represent a large portion of the total revenue for these single-player games. Wolverine, another example used by Rhys, appears to owe 800,000 of its 2.6 million sales to physical copies, as well as almost a third of its total revenue. In Japan, there is even greater support for physical game sales. PlayStation’s first-party, Japan-focused games, like Capcom releases, tend to sell more physical copies there. have a larger portion of their total sales be physical than other types of games. Elliot surmises that’s because physical games are more “rooted in the culture” there. 44 percent of Pragmata copies sold were physical, for example, and 44.1 percent of Onimusha: Way of the Sword sales were also physical. Given that Japan is responsible for 12 percent of Onimusha’s sales and 11 percent of Pragmata’s, the country’s purchasing habits are enough to have a substantial impact on global statistics. It is in that context that the new digital-only, Japan-exclusive PS5 Black launched in Japan for $350, with a separate disc drive selling for $75. Elliot interprets this as an attempt to “nudge” Japanese users to purchase games digitally. However, while physical sales of single-player games appear healthy, the situation is different for sports games. PlayStation’s currently best-selling game, FC 27, owes only 8.9 percent of its sales to the physical format. Still, as Elliot points out, the relative popularity of physical games on PlayStation is likely a key component of the backlash Sony has faced with its decision to go digital. On Monday, PlayStation founder Ken Kutaragi said the discs became a “metaphor for ‘owning’ games,” and that the unease over their discontinuation was likely a “matter of mentality.” Sony has also vowed to continue with its plans to move away from discs despite the associated outrage.
