Digital storefronts run sales constantly, which makes digital feel like the obvious money-saving choice. But that's only half the picture — a physical copy you can resell or trade in can end up costing less than a digital game you'll own forever at a discount.
Where digital wins
Frequency and depth of sales. Steam, GOG, Humble, and Fanatical run overlapping promotions most of the year (see the sale calendar for specifics), and PC games in particular can drop 75-90% within a year or two of release. Physical retail pricing moves much more slowly.
No condition risk, no shipping, no waiting. A digital deal is exactly as advertised the moment you buy it. A used physical copy is a gamble on disc condition, missing manuals, or a case that's been sitting in a bargain bin.
Convenience for indie and back-catalog games. A huge share of the deepest discounts — indie titles, older RPG Maker games, small bundles — never got a meaningful physical release to begin with.
Where physical still wins
Resale value. This is the one digital fundamentally can't compete with. A $70 console game played for a month and sold used can recover a meaningful chunk of its price — something no digital purchase, discounted or not, ever does. If you finish games quickly and don't replay them, the math often favors buying physical at full price over buying digital at 30% off.
Trade-in and library sharing. Borrowing a physical copy from a friend, or building a household library that multiple people can play, isn't something most digital licenses allow.
Regional and used-market pricing. Older console games in used physical markets can fall well below even the deepest digital discount, especially a few years after release.
The actual decision
The honest rule of thumb: if it's a game you'll play once and won't return to, and it's available physically, compare the discounted digital price against what you could resell a physical copy for afterward — not just against full price. If it's a PC game, an indie title, or something you expect to keep playing long-term, digital's frequent deep sales (which you can browse here) are usually the better value with none of the resale-market hassle.