PS5 Price Study Shows Physical Discs Beat Digital Storefront Costs

A new analysis of PlayStation 5 game pricing is highlighting a growing mismatch between boxed releases and digital purchases. Researchers compared the costs of several first-party and third-party PS5 titles across retail outlets and the official PlayStation Store, finding that physical copies can be notably cheaper. Price competition between stores and digital storefronts has long existed in the industry, but the gap is standing out more as PlayStation moves away from disc-based formats and encourages players to buy digital games.

That shift toward an all-digital approach has been explained before from a business-angle perspective. Industry analyst Dr. Serkan Toto previously outlined how profit margins differ between physical and digital sales: for first-party digital releases, companies keep the full $70 or $80 sale price. For discs, the publisher must share at least 30% of each sale with retailers, on top of manufacturing costs that further cut into profits. A fresh study points to another practical reason Sony would favor a disc-light ecosystem.

The report digs into PS5 discs themselves, asking how many physical games can be started without requiring an internet connection or extra downloads.

Physical PS5 Discs Can Be Up to $57 Cheaper Than Digital Games

A recent study from the Dutch tech site Tweakers claims players can save as much as €50 (around $57 USD) by buying physical PS5 games instead of their digital editions. The team looked at a set of 16 PS5 titles—mixing first-party and third-party releases—that had received a Game of the Year nomination since 2021. The list included Resident Evil 4 Remake, God of War Ragnarok, and Elden Ring.

From there, Tweakers used its own in-house tool to collect retail pricing for those games and then compared those numbers against current PlayStation Store prices. The results were broadly consistent: nearly every title in the sample was priced a few euros lower on disc, and many were discounted by much larger margins. Tweakers summarized the takeaway this way: the PlayStation Store certainly has its perks, but if your goal is the lowest price, physical editions are often the better route.

Select the game that has the higher OpenCritic score.

Physical PS5 Discs Are Way Cheaper in the US Too

Because Tweakers’ findings centered on Dutch retail pricing, GameRant ran a smaller check to see whether the same pattern shows up in the United States. Using the online price-tracking service Deku Deals, GameRant gathered the lowest available retail prices for five well-known PS5 games and set them against their corresponding PlayStation Store prices.

The titles included Red Dead Redemption, God of War Ragnarok, Hogwarts Legacy, Elden Ring, and Spider-Man 2.

• Image via Deku Deals
• Image via Deku Deals
• Image via Deku Deals
• Image via Deku Deals
• Image via Deku Deals

As reflected in the table below, a US-based player buying all five games on disc at the best prices available would pay about $162. Purchasing the same set digitally from the PlayStation Store, however, would come to roughly $320. In other words, at least within GameRant’s limited sample, digital versions can cost 49% more than discs.

$28.69 (Walmart third-party seller)

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Most of the games included in both studies are a few years old, which could help explain why retail pricing is lower. That said, it also highlights one of the biggest reasons physical formats have been so attractive: retailers frequently drop disc prices over time, giving budget-focused players a clear path to savings. The PlayStation Store, by contrast, tends to hold onto standard pricing for much longer—even years after a title’s initial release.

Tweakers also pointed out that the PlayStation Store sometimes runs limited-time promotions that can make digital prices undercut physical copies. Those deals, however, don’t last, and in the case of first-party PlayStation games they appear relatively rarely. Even when first-party discounts do happen, they are unlikely to top 50%, while retailers can often apply far deeper markdowns to major AAA releases after they’ve been on shelves for a while.

Finally, the report notes that some of the prices mentioned may change later, since retailers could end promotions or remove discounts at any time.