U.S. Physical Game Sales Hit 30-Year Low

Circana's Mat Piscatella reported that U.S. physical video game sales in 2025 were roughly $1.5 billion, the lowest "all-time tracked" figure in 30 years. The total represented an 11-percent drop from the year before, a decline Piscatella called the "lowest rate of decline since 2021." At the same time, Circana's 2026 forecast suggested 2026 could reach a new record high in consumer spending.

Its numbers show U.S. hardware, content, and accessories sales in 2025 reached $60.7 billion, up 1.4 percent from 2024 and just shy of the $61.7 billion record set in 2021. The report points to changing consumer behavior—an "accelerated adoption of cloud gaming" and growing subscription services like Xbox Game Pass and the PlayStation Plus Game Catalogue—as a factor in the disparity between falling physical media and rising overall spending.

United States

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