2008's Spore was among the games that sold a single physical copy in the US last month

[midian182]

WTF?! Remember Spore, the PC game that released in 2008 to rave reviews? Last month, just over 17 years since it launched, somebody in the US bought a physical copy of Maxis' genre-blending title. It was one of several games that sold a single physical copy throughout October, most of which were as old as, if not older, than Spore.

Mat Piscatella, video game analyst and senior director of Circana, often reveals sales figures for multi-million-selling games and hardware. On Bluesky, he revealed something a little different: some of the games that sold a single physical unit in the US last month.

Spore is the only PC game on the list. I remember playing it at the time and being awed by the technical aspect of evolving a microscopic organism into a spacefaring race – and the creature creator was brilliant fun. It still has a Very Positive rating on Steam for both overall and recent reviews.

Among video games selling 1 new physical unit in Oct (US): 360 Burnout Paradise 3DS Carnival Games: Wild West 3D GBA Incredibles 2: Rise of the Underminer NDA Imagine Fashion Stylist PC Spore PS2 Backyard Baseball (!!!!) PS3 Hasbro Family Game Night 3 PS4 Cooking Mama Cookstar XBX Ultra Bust A Move

[image or embed]

– Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 20 November 2025 at 15:10

Someone buying a physical copy of any PC game these days is a rare occurrence. Beyond retro enthusiasts looking to add to their collections, very few people have a working PC with an optical drive. Perhaps someone just thought it would look cool on a shelf, or wanted the disc for a coaster.

Spore isn't the oldest game on the list: that honor goes to Backyard Baseball, which was released on the PlayStation 2 in 2004. Only slightly younger is Ultra Bust-A-Move – the Xbox version was released in November that same year.

Here's Piscatella's full list, starting with the oldest game.

Name	Platform	Release Date
Backyard Baseball	PlayStation 2	March 23, 2004
Ultra Bust-A-Move	Xbox	November 4, 2004
The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer	Game Boy Advance	November 1, 2005
Burnout Paradise	Xbox 360	January 22, 2008
Spore	PC	September 7, 2008
Hasbro Family Game Night 3	PlayStation 3	October 26, 2010
Imagine: Fashion Stylist	Nintendo DS	November 3, 2010
Carnival Games: Wild West 3D	Nintendo 3DS	November 21, 2011
Cooking Mama: Cookstar	PlayStation 4	April 28, 2020

Another Bluesky user asked the analyst if there were any games that sold only two copies last month. Piscatella confirmed that there were, and Tom Clancy's End War on the PSP (released on November 4, 2008) was one of them.

As for the more traditional list of best-selling games, Battlefield 6 was October 2025's No. 1 top seller despite being on sale for just three weeks. Its first-month sales volume surpassed the lifetime sales of Battlefield 1. It also had the highest one-month physical full-game dollar sales in the US for any game since 2022.

Permalink to story:

2008's Spore was among the games that sold a single physical copy in the US last month

 

[SirDigby]

As someone who never suffered the overhype of Spore, and just picked it up naturally, I absolutely adore this game.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

I would be thrilled to buy new PC games on physical media.

That was the draw for me into PC gaming - the amazing artwork, the manual, the inserts, being able to pop the disc into the drive and listen to it spin up and install the game.

I got my hands on some physical PC games about 8 months ago or so. My brother came across some at a Good Will store. He snapped pictures of them and asked if I had them or not. Out of the 10 games he found, I had 4 of them, so he picked up the other 6 for me. I'm always happy to add more to my collection.

 

[Axeia]

being able to pop the disc into the drive and listen to it spin up and install the game.

I hated how noisy it was. First thing I always did was rip the iso and then mount it with CloneDVD I think it was called.
Also saves a lot of time is you ever have to reinstall them or if the game loaded assets from the disk later on. HDD search times are a lot faster.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I hated how noisy it was. First thing I always did was rip the iso and then mount it with CloneDVD I think it was called.
Also saves a lot of time is you ever have to reinstall them or if the game loaded assets from the disk later on. HDD search times are a lot faster.

Ah yes, "the sheep software" as we called it. That and loading up a RAMDISK for unused physical RAM on XP bring back many memories.

While the physical media has a sense of permanence and the artwork was great; the instruction manuals are a lost artform, the issue I always had was keeping track of physical disks, CD keys, and dealing with inevitable scratches. That I do not miss at all.

 

[candle86]

I'm curious where he's getting this information because I I know buddy of mine bought a copy of sport that thrift store Goodwill I think it was and I bought a copy and half-price books had to be any other month so I know at least two physical copies have sold so I don't know where this guy gets his information.

Me and him both collect retro games when I saw it for thrift store I told him it was there he vid mode me the money I bought it for him cuz he didn't have it yet and since I already bought it at half price books earlier I with more than happy for him to have it I got a bunch of other games at a price books as well I go about every 3 months to get games.