No Disc, No Buy and PS5 Blackout Protests Fail to Impact PlayStation

Key Points:

• Sony reported a record 127 million monthly active PlayStation users in Q2 fiscal year 2026, marking an 8 million increase from the previous year and a 2 million rise from Q1 2026, despite fan protests against recent company decisions.
• The protests, including the No Disc, No Buy campaign and the PS5 blackout rally, aimed to oppose Sony's plan to cease manufacturing physical game discs from January 2028, but these actions did not negatively impact Sony's financial results or user engagement.
• Digital full game purchases accounted for 78% of all full game software sales during the quarter, a 6% increase from the previous year, with digital game revenue reaching ¥330.8 billion, significantly surpassing physical game revenue of ¥43.1 billion.
• Customer spending on both physical and digital games increased year-on-year, with physical game revenue rising by nearly ¥8 billion and digital revenue increasing by ¥60.5 billion compared to Q2 of fiscal year 2025.
• Sony has not responded to the fan protests or altered its plans to end physical disc production, and evidence suggests that nearly half of the social media accounts promoting the No Disc, No Buy campaign may have been fake bots.