One of the largest retail chains in the United States, Best Buy , announced that it will stop selling Blu-ray discs and DVDs next year. Moreover, sales of video games on optical discs will be curtailed, just a few days after Sony announced a new version of the PS5 game console with a removable disc drive.
The news isn’t entirely unexpected – with the number of 4K Blu-ray player models dwindling and Disney having already announced that it will no longer sell physical discs in Australia – it may just be the first sign of a general trend away from physical media. The report suggests that Best Buy will stop selling physical media in the first quarter of 2024. Moreover, this applies to both physical stores and the online portal of the network.
It can be assumed that the reason for this decision was the strong growth in sales of digital copies of films and games, as well as the growing popularity of streaming cinemas and video game streaming services.
Until recently, movie and TV streaming services such as Netflix and Disney Plus coexisted peacefully with physical media, although they clearly contributed to the gradual decline of the latter.