New data is suggesting that Americans just aren’t spending as much money on physical video games as they used to, with Circana stating that the rate fell 11% from 2024 to 2025.
Industry analyst Mat Piscatella shared the figure in a Bluesky post (via Kotaku) on March 2. Piscatella confirmed that when looking at the data between 2024 and 2025, last year saw an 11% decline in spending on physical video games in the US. Although that sounds like a terrible number, it’s less drastic than 2024’s figure, which was -28%. The decline, according to Piscatella, slowed because we’re “nearing the bottom” (presumably of this console generation), and the Nintendo Switch 2’s launch last year helped “stabilize” the numbers a bit.
Piscatella also noted that 2025 saw Americans spend $1.5 billion on physical video games, which is an all-time low since this data began being tracked in 1995. While the peak was in 2008 at $11.6 billion, Piscatella clarified that this figure has declined every year since. The most pronounced drop, however, was still 2024’s -28%.
This all seems to track with consumer behavior and the technological environments we’re currently living in. The rise of streaming services has upended physical media, with PlayStation Plus Catalog and Xbox Game Pass offering subscribers access to a rotating stable of free, oftentimes major releases. This has impacted retailers as well, with GameStop closing hundreds of stores last year and shuttering many more as 2026 gets underway.
That said, as the Los Angeles Times noted–which is the reporting that kickstarted Piscatella sharing data on Americans’ spending habits–there’s a rise in analog technology, with Gen Z and Gen Alpha really embracing slower, older forms of technology that older people have pushed to the wayside. Things like DVDs and movie rentals are gaining popularity again, so maybe physical video games will see a resurgence as the years go on.
