Physical copies made up about 35% of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 revenue

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 brought in about $1.2 billion in gross revenue, and roughly 35% of that came from physical copies. That is the estimate from Rhys Elliott at Alinea Analytics. It sits awkwardly next to Sony's line that dropping discs is mainly about players moving to digital.

Other big PlayStation exclusives also took a large share of their money from discs, when the count is revenue rather than units. Ghost of Yotei earned about $400 million, with 37.6% physical. Astro Bot brought in $275 million, 46.8% of it from discs. Of Death Stranding 2's $129 million, 41.8% was physical.

The same PS5 estimate chart lists more games: Helldivers 2 at $235 million with 8.3% physical, Stellar Blade at $185 million with 43.3%, and Rise of the Ronin at $152 million with 32.3%. These figures are revenue, not copies sold. Alinea mostly studies large single-player games, where buyers pick up physical editions more often.

Elliott's view is that player taste is only part of the story. A disc copy leaves Sony with less: retailers take a cut, and the company pays to manufacture and ship the discs. A digital sale is more profitable because the money moves through Sony's own ecosystem. Going fully digital also tightens control of the market and largely removes resale between players.