PlayStation’s decision to completely end physical disc production by 2028 brings with it a significant change in the gaming world. Analysts warn that this attack could significantly shrink the second-hand game market, which is worth $7.2 billion.

According to Dataintelo data, the second-hand game market, which reached a size of 7.2 billion dollars in 2025, was predicted to increase to 13.8 billion dollars by 2034. But Sony’s digital-focused strategy may completely change these growth expectations.

Big risk in the second-hand market

Michael Pachter from Wedbush Securities states that classic game retailing will come to an end as physical sales decrease. Pachter emphasizes that at least one-third of the games sold are second-hand and that these sales also provide resources for new game purchases.

Kazunori Ito from Morningstar states that Sony’s digitalization process will completely destroy the second-hand market over time. Experts state that this transition has actually been completed on the PC side with platforms such as Steam, Epic and GOG, and remind that Xbox is also working on a similar digitalization process.

The necessity of digitalization is being discussed

Xbox’s testing of new features for digitizing physical collections shows that the general trend in the department is moving away from physical media. Experts argue that there is a big difference between players seeing digitalization as an asset and being forced to digitalize by taking this option away from them.

The withdrawal of physical discs from the market will prevent new games from entering the second-hand market, causing existing stocks to become obsolete. This can negatively impact game accessibility by limiting the options of collectors and players looking for affordable games.

This decision by Sony seems to have long-term consequences for the entire player base, whether they are interested in physical games or not. How do you think the complete loss of physical game discs will affect the gaming world?