It’s the end of an era at Best Buy as the company says it will stop selling DVDs by the beginning of 2024.
Best Buy plans to phase out DVDs and Blu-ray sales after the upcoming holiday season, according to The Associated Press.
Video games are not expected to be impacted by this sale change.
“To state the obvious, the way we watch movies and TV shows is much different today than it was decades ago,” Best Buy said in an emailed statement to the AP. “Making this change gives us more space and opportunity to bring customers new and innovative tech for them to explore, discover, and enjoy.”
Over the last few months, other companies have been making changes to their DVD business, including Netflix, which closed its DVD-by-mail service, the AP reported.
The news was first reported by entertainment blog The Digital Bits on Thursday. Industry sources told Variety that the initial decision to end DVD sales happened around nine months ago.
One reason Best Buy decided to make the change is because sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs have dropped over the years. In the start of 2023, physical media revenue dropped 28%, according to data from the Digital Entertainment Group obtained by Variety.
Best Buy’s plan to stop selling physical media leaves the market to Walmart, Amazon and Target. According to Variety, those three are the top retailers in the United States stocking DVFs and Blu-ray discs.
As of mid-2023, according to Variety, Best Buy has 1,129 store locations and 969 of those are in the United States.
