The PlayStation 5 had sold 95 million units by June 2026, and it is still very much a current console. Collecting it means something different from collecting a PS1: the question isn't which old discs survived, but which new ones are worth keeping.
That question got sharper in July 2026, when Sony announced it would stop producing physical PlayStation game discs from January 2028. The PS5 disc library now has an end date.
Buy a PS5 that can read a disc
The standard PS5 has an Ultra HD Blu-ray drive. The Digital Edition lacks it and is meant for buying games only through download. Slimmer versions of both replaced the originals in November 2023, and for the slim Digital Edition an optional disc drive can be bought separately for $80 and attached, which makes it equivalent to the standard model.
So for a collector, the rule is simple: whatever model you own, make sure it has a drive, built in or added.
The disc library has an end date
Sony's July 2026 announcement means new PS5 games will be available only as digital purchases once disc production stops in January 2028. It met backlash and legal challenges, and Sony later said it would handle the transition "cautiously".
For a collector that turns the PS5 into a closed shelf, like every older console, just a few years early. The physical games printed before 2028 are the ones there will ever be.
Discs are usually the cheaper way to buy
Discs aren't only for collectors. In July 2026, data from the Dutch site Tweakers showed that out of 16 award-nominated and winning games from 2021 available both ways, the vast majority were much cheaper on disc than on the PlayStation Store, with savings of up to 50 euros in extreme cases.
Store sales offer discounts, but they rarely matched physical retailers. And a disc can be sold on when you finish it, which a download can't.
A disc doesn't always mean a game you can keep
Some modern game boxes carry a statement that no physical game is included, only a download code. Others hold a disc that needs a large update before it plays as intended, and that update lives on a server that won't be there forever.
Online-only games are the extreme case. Concord was shut down on September 6, 2024, two weeks after launch, with every copy refunded, and its servers went offline. Retailers stopped selling physical copies, and for a moment scalpers sold them for as much as $150.
The moment passed. Boxed copies sold for a typical $24 in early 2025, for a disc that can no longer play the game. So read the back of the box before you buy, and treat sudden price spikes on dead games with suspicion.
Your PS4 discs work on it
The PS5 is backward compatible with the majority of PS4 and PlayStation VR games. A PS4 disc collection doesn't need its own console, as long as your PS5 has a drive.
That also makes PS4 discs a cheap way to fill a PS5 shelf. The big PS4 games cost a few dollars used, and most of them run on the newer console.
The big games are cheap used
Used copies of the big games are already cheap. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth sold for a typical $33 loose in 2025, and boxed copies for a typical $30 in summer 2025. Astro Bot, a much-loved first-party game, went for a typical $45 loose in early 2025.
So there is little reason to pay full price for a disc you only want to own.
Limited editions of the console sell out once
For the PlayStation's 30th anniversary, Sony made only 12,300 units of the PS5 Pro 30th Anniversary Edition, a number chosen to commemorate the original PlayStation's release date of December 3, 1994, and each one is individually numbered. It sold out almost instantly and won't be restocked.
The standard PS5 30th Anniversary Edition was easier to get. If you want one for the nostalgia rather than the number on it, that is the one to look for.
Small print runs are the expensive shelf
The PS5 games that will cost real money later are the ones printed in small numbers now. Limited Run Games makes its physical editions available for a limited time, and once they sell out, they are rarely reprinted.
So if a game you love gets a limited physical release, buy it then. With disc production ending in 2028, there won't be a reprint later, and the second-hand price is the only one left.
