Digital vs physical video game prices – What to buy in South Africa

Deciding whether to buy physical or digital video games comes down to personal preference rather than affordability.

This is because pricing is similar across the physical and digital versions of the same game when buying it for popular consoles like the PlayStation5 and Xbox Series X|S.

It may surprise readers to learn this, particularly given that the video game market has shifted heavily from physical copies to digital versions in recent years.

As connectivity speeds have increased, and access to more data storage has grown, it has become easier to download and store video games natively on a PC or console.

When combined with the convenience of not having to switch out a cartridge or disk every time you want to play a new game, the shift to digital games has been swift.

To buy a digital game on console, you must use the dedicated storefront of your chosen model – with Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo all having their own official storefronts.

In contrast, there are many PC gaming marketplaces to choose from – but Steam has become the dominant name in this sector.

On any given day, Steam usually boasts between 25 and 33 million active users, while users who visit the site at least once per month hover around 132 million.

These figures mean that Steam accounts for roughly 75% of global PC digital gaming distribution.

Consoles in South Africa

When comparing prices of video games, it’s best to use launch-day figures, as post-launch prices can fluctuate irregularly depending on publisher preferences or frequent sales.

Another consideration is that Nintendo’s first-party titles are almost always exclusive to the brand’s consoles, and rarely see price decreases.

However, many major third-party games also make their way to the Nintendo platform, and are available in both digital and physical form.

Therefore, if you own a PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo Switch, you can get most major third-party titles in either physical or digital form.

The odd platform out in this discussion is the PC. Physical copies of video games are virtually non-existent in 2026, with most PCs and laptops not even being built with optical drives any more.

Therefore, when comparing physical to digital video game prices, it makes sense to do this across the three major consoles, rather than including PC into the mix.

Below is a table highlighting the launch-day prices for several games across the three consoles.

The table shows that comparing physical and digital versions of the same game on the same platform is largely irrelevant.

The prices are often identical, and if not, are so similar as for the difference to be negligible.

Furthermore, all of the PlayStation and Xbox prices are identical across both physical and digital versions of a specific title – meaning you do not generally benefit by choosing one of those consoles over the other.

Nintendo Switch/Switch 2 versions of popular third-party games are rarer because of differences in these consoles’ system compatibility when compared to the Xbox and PlayStation consoles.

First-party Nintendo games tend to be priced similarly to the flagship games available on PlayStation and Xbox.

For example, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom released for R1,349 (Physical) and R1,429 (Digital).

Steam vs console

While PC gamers were excluded in the physical vs digital discussion, it is interesting to compare Steam prices to digital game prices on console.

When using the same games as before, a clear pattern emerges: PC games are often noticeable cheaper than console games.

We have listed the launch prices for the digital versions of these games, below.