Study Claims Physical PS5 Games Are 100 Times Worse for the Planet Than Digital Downloads

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If you like buying physical copies of games, it’s worth thinking about how they affect the environment.

A recent report from Greenly, a French carbon accounting company featured on GamesIndustry.biz, explores the environmental impact of choosing Blu-rays versus digital downloads.

According to the study, making and shipping physical copies of games can create up to 100 times more carbon emissions than buying them digitally from the PlayStation Store.

Sony estimates that making and delivering up to one million PS5 game discs creates around 312 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

By comparison, a 70GB download of one million games emits about three tCO2e.

Author Stefanie Safdie told GamesIndustry.biz:

While downloading digital games does use electricity at home and in data centers, it’s still less harmful to the environment than buying physical copies. This is because physical games create more waste through manufacturing, packaging, and eventually ending up in landfills – a problem that’s much more significant than the energy used for digital downloads.

The report also points out that making physical games uses a lot of energy and water, especially when extracting the rare Earth metals and plastics needed for production, and these resources are limited.

Playing games through the cloud does have a downside: while it cuts down on the plastic and materials used for game discs and consoles, it requires a lot of electricity to run the servers that stream the games.

The research suggests console makers can help the environment by including energy-saving settings in their systems. Sony recently did this with the PS5, and it can cut down on power usage by as much as half.

The study also suggests making it easier to buy and sell used physical games. This would help people reuse and recycle games instead of buying new ones.

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2025-11-05 18:07