The numbers reported are not even about “physical” vs. digital sales. As I understand it, is software sales conducted in the Nintendo Switch Store vs. software sales from other stores. So a customer buying an activation key in a box will count as a physical sale.
This is an important data point, since it shows that some customers would rather drive down to GameStop, buy a code in a box, drive home, and punch that code into the console rather than giving Nintendo their credit card (probably because they are buying the game for someone else). That means that stopping sales outside the console games store would alienate a ton of customers.
The numbers reported are not even about “physical” vs. digital sales. As I understand it, is software sales conducted in the Nintendo Switch Store vs. software sales from other stores. So a customer buying an activation key in a box will count as a physical sale.
This is an important data point, since it shows that some customers would rather drive down to GameStop, buy a code in a box, drive home, and punch that code into the console rather than giving Nintendo their credit card (probably because they are buying the game for someone else). That means that stopping sales outside the console games store would alienate a ton of customers.