The PlayStation Store's Black Friday sale started on 4 November and, according to the PlayStation Blog, runs to 30 November. The blog says new titles join on 16 November, and that some discounts end earlier, on 20 November. So when a game is on sale, is the download really cheaper than a new disc? We took every PS4 and PS5 game where a shop had a new disc in stock and the PlayStation Store had a price: 557 games.
When the game was on sale, the download usually won
| Store price | Games | Download cheaper | Disc cheaper | Median gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| On sale | 137 | 119 (87%) | 17 (12%) | £8.50 in the download's favour |
| Not on sale | 420 | 69 (16%) | 350 (83%) | £10.50 in the disc's favour |
One game on sale and one game not on sale cost the same as their discs. Of the 137 games on sale, 114 (83%) were half off or more, and the middle discount was 75%. For 47 of them the download was £10 or more below the disc.
Sale prices well below the disc
| Game | Console | New disc | PlayStation Store | Download saves |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mirror's Edge Catalyst | PS4 | £48.85 (Hit) | £7.19 (usual £17.99) | £41.66 |
| Trinity Trigger | PS5 | £40.95 (The Game Collection) | £8.99 (usual £44.99) | £31.96 |
| LEGO The Hobbit | PS4 | £28.85 (Hit) | £4.54 (usual £34.99) | £24.31 |
| High On Life | PS5 | £28.85 (Hit) | £8.24 (usual £32.99) | £20.61 |
| The Thaumaturge | PS5 | £28.85 (Hit) | £8.99 (usual £29.99) | £19.86 |
| Still Wakes the Deep | PS5 | £25.85 (Hit) | £7.49 (usual £29.99) | £18.36 |
Sales that did not beat the disc
| Game | Console | New disc | PlayStation Store | Disc saves |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beast of Reincarnation | PS5 | £29.85 (Hit) | £37.49 (usual £49.99) | £7.64 |
| Dark Souls III | PS4 | £15.99 (Hit) | £22.49 (usual £44.99) | £6.50 |
| Code Vein II | PS5 | £24.85 (Hit) | £31.34 (usual £54.99) | £6.49 |
| Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue | PS4 | £13.99 (Hit) | £19.79 (usual £32.99) | £5.80 |
The disc prices in both tables were checked on the shops' own pages on 7 November 2026.
What this means if you buy games
A sale tends to beat the disc, but a 50% cut on a game that was priced high can still leave the disc ahead, as the second table shows. And when a game was not on sale, a new disc was cheaper than the download for five games in six. Each game's page shows the PlayStation Store price next to every shop we track, and can email you when it drops. For the same comparison across all consoles, see Disc or download.
How we counted
For each PS4 and PS5 game we took the cheapest new, in-stock disc across Hit, The Game Collection and GAME, and the PlayStation Store price in the game's latest check. We only used games whose latest PlayStation Store check was on or after 4 November, the first day of the sale. A game counts as on sale when the store shows a price below its usual price. We cannot tell which of these discounts belong to the Black Friday promotion and which were already running, so this is the store's whole sale picture, not a list of Black Friday deals. To compare like with like, we left out games where a title marks a special edition or a bundle (deluxe, collector's, ultimate, definitive, bundles with a bonus item or similar). Pre-owned copies and pre-orders are not included. Delivery is not included. The disc and the download were not priced on the same day, so a change in between can alter a single result.
Using these figures
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