'Marvel’s Wolverine' Sales Figure Proves There’s Still a Huge Market for Discs

Published Oct 8, 2026, 12:41 PM EDT Elijah is a freelance news writer at Polygon. He was an associate editor at The A.V. Club and Paste, and has been featured in outlets like Game Informer, Fanbyte, Unwinnable, and more. He loves media in all forms, from fighting games and horror flicks to slow cinema and visual novels. He's from the Greater Boston area. The first-party PlayStation game's sales undermine Sony's official stance Image: Sony Sign in to your Polygon.com account When Sony announced it would stop producing physical discs for its newly released games starting in 2028, the company kicked a hornet’s nest, sparking online anger as fans of physical media flooded its social media channels with criticism. While some argued that this pivot makes some amount of business sense given the growing ubiquity of digital games, PlayStation sales data from September tells a different story. As per The Game Business, Ampere Analysis found that a surprisingly large percentage of sales for PlayStation 5's latest exclusive, Marvel’s Wolverine, were boxed copies. Of its 2.16 million sales, 35% were boxed, making for roughly 756K physical sales. In Europe, these numbers were even more skewed toward physical, with 51% of sales coming from the boxed version. Marvel’s Wolverine wasn’t the only game to hit impressive physical sales. Roughly 45.4% of Silent Hill: Townfall sales were boxed on PlayStation. The Blood of the Dawnwalker and Onimusha: Way of the Sword hit similar figures, with 36% and 31% physical sales, respectively. It seems that while the vast majority of game purchases in America are digital these days, those numbers are a bit less skewed that way worldwide. Why are many players upset about Sony’s decision to cut physical discs? As for why players are angry at Sony, many view PlayStation winding down physical disc production as a major blow to the future of game ownership. As it stands, users don’t “own” digital games they purchase on storefronts like the PlayStation Store; they own a license to play them. This matters because it means digital storefronts have no obligation to keep providing access to games a player purchased. Just a few months ago, Sony removed hundreds of movies from the PlayStation Store after a contract with a rights holder expired, meaning those who bought them no longer had access to what they paid for. The company is currently trying to prove in court that players don't own digital games. The backlash to Sony’s decision has been easy to see online, with trailers, social media posts, and other official communications flooded with comments criticizing Sony’s choice. With Marvel’s Wolverine, fans seem to have put their money where their mouths are.