Best Buy Announces the End of DVD and Blue-Ray Disc Sales
End of an era.
It has been a long time coming but Best Buy has officially announced that it would end the sales of DVDs and Blu-ray Discs once and for all. This comes after the company stopped selling physicals in 2018 after the introduction and power of streaming services like Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal and more.
Much like the music industry, streaming has taken over the entertainment world with platforms like Netflix, Disney+, Hulu and more taking over. The long-time electronics retailer revealed last week that it is ending DVD and Blu-ray Discs sales both in-store and online starting in early 2024. The company cites industry changes and adjustments to new media consumption models as the reason. Sales will officially be discontinued in the new year, but will continue to sell physical video games.
Overtime, the usage and sales of DVD and Blu-ray Discs have been gradually declining. Data from The Digital Entertainment Group said that U.S. physical media revenue for the first half of 2023 hit a major decline to $754 million USD from $1.05 billion USD at the same time in 2022. The switch away from DVD has also seen DVD distributor Ingram Entertainment announce its exit from the market in the new year. The only other top retailers for physical media in the U.S. market are currently Walmart, Amazon and Target.
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