Brink-and-mortar retail shops were once the only way to buy new games but with platforms like Steam becoming incredibly popular, there are more options than ever before.

However, for those not rolling in extra cash at the end of the month, it would be good to know which option, retail or digital, is the most economical.

Steam has become a staple of PC gaming and boasts over 50,000 games.

The standard price

For this test, we will use Elden Ring as an example, as it is available both in retail stores and online – its also what everyone’s currently talking about.

Below you’ll find two tables of the retail and digital prices for Elden Ring across PlayStation and Xbox.

Strangely enough unlike with PlayStation the Xbox digital version of Elden Ring is cheaper than its retail copy.

This then would result in the cheaper option depending on which console you own.

The PlayStation Store offers games for both PS4 and PS5.

Steam

Comparing the prices of retail and digital PC games is more difficult as we don’t really get physical copies of PC games anymore.

But one can still consider the digital price of games found on Steam when assessing what’s the most economical.

Currently the standard edition of Elden Ring is R850 on Steam, a significantly lower sum than than both the retail and digital prices of the consoles – this likely due to the trend of PC games generally being cheaper across the board.

Sales

Prices aren’t set in stone, as older releases usually become cheaper when new releases are published, and sales also provide a great opportunity to buy a game at a cheaper price.

Retail sales are, however, less significant than digital ones. Often, BT Games will have sales of between 5% and 50% off, depending on how new the title is.

The console stores suffer from a similar trend of minor price reductions for more prominent titles like Elden Ring.

The Microsoft Store has a wide array of titles available to users.

Other factors

Pricing isn’t the only factor to consider when determining the best deals.

Unlike their retail equivalents, online purchases require you to download the game, which can be problematic if you have a limited amount of data or a poor connection

Likewise in the case of console exclusives the affordability of Steam plays no role in the decision.

Verdict

Provided you have a good PC and a solid data plan, there’s very little reason not to use Steam and other sites like it – the prices are better.

Read: Xbox Game Pass gets 11 new games in March