Used games are worth it when two things are true: the discount over a new copy is real, and the disc is the whole game. They are a false economy when the version you want depends on downloadable content, because add-ons do not travel with plastic — PlayStation's own support documentation is clear that add-on content is tied to the account that purchased it.
That is the mechanism behind every bad used-game purchase, so it is worth stating precisely. A disc is an object: you can buy it, lend it, resell it, and nothing about it is attached to your name. A digital copy is a licence. PlayStation spells the licence out on its own game pages — a PS4 title carries "One-time license fee for play on account's designated primary PS4™ system and other PS4™ systems when signed in with that account", and a PS5 title states you can play it "on the main PS5 console associated with your account… and on any other PS5 consoles when you login with your same account".
Read those two quotes next to each other and the whole used-games question resolves. There is no legitimate used market in digital copies, because there is nothing to hand over. The used market exists only in discs, and what you are buying is the base game on that disc — not the expansions a previous owner bought, which stayed with their account.
The second thing to check is less obvious: a used disc is not a shortcut around downloading. PlayStation's install instruction for a PS4 disc game on a PS5 is "Insert the PS4 game disc. You may need to download an update"— the current build still comes over your connection, and it still occupies storage. Buying used saves money, not bandwidth or space.
Which brings us to the honest answer this site keeps arriving at: on the back catalogue, new copies are often so cheap that the used discount is not worth the uncertainty. The three discs below are all brand-new, all in the budget bracket, and all complete-in-box editions, which is exactly the comparison to run before you buy anything second-hand. Live prices on the cards, dated.
When used is the right call, and when it is not
Buy used when the disc is the entire game
Single-player games with no expansions are the clean case. Nothing is tied to an account, nothing expires, and what the previous owner did with their copy is irrelevant to you. Most of this site's shelf qualifies — the picks on best cheap Resident Evil games are single-player titles PlayStation lists as 1 player, offline play only.
The arithmetic to run is simple and people skip it: find the new price first. If a new copy is a few dollars more than a used one, buy new — you get a guaranteed-condition disc, a returns path, and no risk that a case arrives without its disc. The used discount has to be meaningful to be worth anything, and on back-catalogue games it frequently is not.
Do not buy used when the edition is the point
This is where money gets lost. If what you want is Dark Souls III: The Fire Fades Edition — the base game with both expansions, per Bandai Namco's own description — then the specific edition on the disc is what you are buying, and a used copy of the standard game will not do. The expansions a previous owner purchased separately are on their account, permanently.
The same applies to Assassin's Creed III Remastered, which PlayStation lists as containing a second game and all original solo DLC. Check that the box in a used listing is the edition you want, not the standard release wearing a similar cover. Our decoder for every suffix is what does definitive edition mean.
Never buy a used download code
A download code is single-use by design. Once it has been redeemed onto an account it is spent, and a card in a case tells you nothing about whether that has already happened. This is a categorically different purchase from a used disc and the only honest advice is to avoid it entirely.
The related category to treat with the same suspicion is third-party key resale, where the provenance of a code is unverifiable. We have a full page on that risk: are gray market game keys safe. If a price looks impossible, the explanation is usually that the thing being sold is not what you think it is.
Check what the console needs before the disc arrives
Two hardware checks. A PS5 Digital Edition has no drive at all — PlayStation states that "PS4 game discs can't be used with the PlayStation®5 Digital Edition"— so the entire used market is closed to its owners. And a used PS4 disc on a PS5 behaves like any other PS4 disc, with Sony's standing caveat that some PS4 functionality may be unavailable on PS5.
Neither is a reason not to buy used; both are reasons to know what you own first. The full compatibility picture, including the upgrade path and its disc-as-key rule, is in do PS4 games work on PS5.
The resale argument cuts both ways
The strongest case for discs over digital has nothing to do with the purchase price: a disc retains some value and a licence retains none. If you finish games and move on, buying physical and reselling recovers part of your outlay, which no digital purchase can. That is the structural advantage behind our position in physical vs digital games.
But it only pays if you actually resell, and most people do not. If your discs accumulate on a shelf, the resale premium is theoretical and the convenience of digital at sale prices may genuinely suit you better. Be honest about which kind of buyer you are — and either way, the cheapest route to a big library is still a patient one, which is the subject of how to buy games cheap.
