Walk into a record store in 2026, and it’s crowded in a way that would have seemed impossible a decade ago. Bookstores are also seeing a resurgence, even though any major title can be accessed on a screen in seconds. Evidently, there is a clear, growing demand for physical media today, which many would’ve deemed unlikely with the advent of streaming platforms.
However, there are exceptions. Gaming is the one major entertainment category where the opposite is happening, and that split is highly indicative of how different industries value ownership.
Vinyl, CDs and the Return of the Shelf
The music industry best illustrates the comeback of physical media. In 2025, U.S. vinyl sales crossed $1 billion in a single year for the first time this century. Even more surprisingly, CDs have started growing faster than vinyl, with sales climbing well into the double digits during the first half of 2026.
Books are experiencing a similar comeback. Barnes & Noble closed 130 stores between 2010 and 2020, then reversed course entirely, opening roughly 60 new locations in 2024 alone, further underscoring this shifting demand for physical media. Movies and TV are seeing something comparable on a smaller scale, with 4K and Blu-ray box sets from boutique labels becoming genuine collector’s items rather than backup copies of something available to stream.
Why People Are Buying Physical Media Again
A huge factor of this movement comes down to control. A purchased record, book or disc doesn’t disappear when a platform shuts down, like a movie pulled from a streaming catalog. The sense of ownership that a physical object affords has become more strongly emphasized in today’s digitized world.
Collecting represents a big part of the equation as well. Younger buyers in particular are driving much of this behavior, treating vinyls, CDs and even old cameras like artifacts worth hunting down and holding onto. This makes sense for a generation that grew up inside digital catalogs. To many Gen Z people, CDs have held both novelty and a retro quality. Owning a physical shelf of favorites has become its own form of self-expression.
There’s also a documented cultural pull toward disconnecting from screens, with commentators pointing to physical media as a way to cleanse from constant digital consumption and rebuild a sense of connection that streaming doesn’t offer. More and more consumers want to enjoy their favorite songs and movies without being pulled into the endless, algorithm-driven scroll that defines most digital consumption.
Gaming Is Moving in the Opposite Direction
Video games tell a completely different story. Sony recently confirmed it will stop producing physical discs for new PlayStation games entirely, shifting new releases to a digital-only model starting in 2028. To many, that threatens an entire global market for buying, selling and trading used games, a market worth billions of dollars built almost entirely on the fact that game discs could change hands after the original purchase.
A game like Elden Ring, which is still sold as a standard disc edition years after release, is exactly the kind of title that the market depends on. It’s something that a player can buy new, finish, sell and pass along to someone else at a lower price. Once new PlayStation releases stop coming on disc, that chain breaks.
Why Gaming Is Different
The decision makes sense once you look at how gaming makes money compared with other entertainment industries. A studio can update or patch a digital game indefinitely, which is something a printed book or a pressed record can’t do. Digital storefronts also let publishers sell add-on content, season passes and microtransactions directly to players, which is far harder to pull off through a one-time disc sale at a store.
Streaming adds another dimension. Cloud platforms now let players stream a game directly from remote servers to a phone or laptop, so owning hardware capable of running the game, let alone a disc drive, stops being necessary at all.
Even publishers still selling a physical edition are moving away from what that used to mean. One of the most anticipated releases in years, Grand Theft Auto VI, will have a boxed edition that contains a download code rather than the finished game on disc. Essentially, it’s physical packaging without a physical game inside it. Players still need an internet connection and a full download before they can play. The game is currently set to be released on November 19, 2026.
The Exceptions That Prove the Rule
Nintendo represents a clear holdout against the industry’s shift to digital-only releases. Its cartridges have kept physical ownership alive in a way many other major platforms are walking away from. Yet, even that holdout is getting smaller.
Nintendo’s newer Switch 2 cartridges include a format called a Game-Key Card, used by many third-party publishers, which contains no game data at all, just a key that triggers a download the first time it’s inserted, the same trick Rockstar is using for GTA VI’s boxed edition.
What still holds up as genuine physical ownership are Nintendo’s traditional game cards, especially for its own flagship titles. For example, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom continues to be available as a physical Nintendo Switch 2 edition, which keeps Nintendo’s first-party releases closer to what a vinyl record or a printed book represents than many current games that use the box as a gateway to a download.
The Future of Physical Gaming Media
Gaming’s relationship with ownership was always going to be different from other media. Games are software first, built to be updated, patched and monetized long after release, and that structure doesn’t reward physical formats the way records, books and films do. Publishers make more money keeping players inside a digital storefront, and cloud streaming means players no longer need a disc drive at all to play the biggest titles.
Yet, collector’s editions and Nintendo cartridges will likely stick around for years, serving dedicated fans willing to pay a premium for something they can hold and keep. But the mainstream disc is fading out for the platforms that matter most. Physical media’s comeback is real across other corners of entertainment. In gaming, it’s the exception rather than the rule, and the industry’s own economics are the reason why.
