PS5 “Blackout” Protest May Have Backfired Against PlayStation Fans Fighting for Physical Games
Ever since Sony announced it would discontinue physical media for PlayStation 5, fans have been vocal about their frustrations. While modern gaming has been moving more and more toward digital, players have always had the option to choose between physical and digital. PlayStation fans organized a blackout protest against Sony in light of this decision, in which players would turn off their PlayStation 5 consoles and not play from August 23rd to August 31st. The goal was to reduce the PS5’s daily active users, one of the company’s most important performance metrics.
The blackout picked up a substantial following, but in the end, it turns out that it did not actually accomplish anything. Mat Piscatella, an analyst at Circana, revealed that his company saw no significant change in player counts or engagement as a result of the protest. This doesn’t mean that no one participated, but it does show the ineffective nature of social media. With a player base of over 93 million, the number of players in the blackout may simply have not been enough to make a difference, which has certainly backfired for fans.
Sony May Have Learned the Wrong Lesson From the PS5 Blackout
With there being almost no change from a week-long boycott of the PS5, Sony has essentially gotten away with its decision to stop producing physical games. With the confirmation from Circana, a market research firm tracking video game performance, there does not seem to be any actual negative effect from Sony’s decisions despite how loud the outcry is on the internet.
No. There was no significant change at all in player count or engagement in our tracking.
— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-09-14T14:28:48.658Z
This does not bode well for the future of PlayStation fans. It effectively means two things: that Sony can seemingly get away with anything, and that there is nothing fans can do about it. The pushback from Sony’s digital-only future was not enough to tip the scales. Whether there wasn’t enough coordinated effort or players were already too invested in a digital library, it seems physical will be done for, and that is final.
The failure of the blackout also leaves the door open for other anti-consumer practices from Sony. We’ve already seen the studio raise prices of PS Plus and its consoles, as well as drop beloved game maker Hideo Kojima’s Physint. It is unclear how Sony will continue in the future, but things may get worse if the studio keeps this path.
For PlayStation fans concerned about physical game ownership, the fight is far from settled. Sony’s decision to move away from physical discs remains a major issue, and the blackout has shown the enthusiasm of those against it, but the question is whether or not it will be enough.