If you want to buy a DVD or Blu-ray at Best Buy or Target, you may be out of luck
In October, Best Buy confirmed that it would stop selling physical media in the first quarter of 2024. The decision was made in response to the mass audience migration to streaming services and digital downloads.
Now Target is going to stop selling DVDs except for the most recent new DVDs. This was first spotted by the X account @PhysicalMedia_:
“Moving forward, we’ll offer select DVDs in stores when they are newly released or during key times throughout the year when they are more popular, like for gift giving during the holidays,” A Target spokesperson said in a statement to IGN. This is a huge reduction from the once massive DVD sections you would find in Target stores.
An increasingly digital world has hit discs. The U.S. physical media revenue fell from $1.5 billion during the first half of 2022 to $754 million in the first half of 2023 — a 28% drop.
Best Buy and Target isn’t the only company stopping or cutting back on DVD and Blu-ray sales.Last year, Netflix retired its DVD-by-mail business and Ingram Entertainment — one of the largest DVD and Blu-ray distributors — said it would stop selling physical discs. Rumors have also circulated that Target is taking similar action.
The changes leave Walmart and Amazon as some of the last options to purchase DVDs, CDs, and Blu-ray, but Walmart could soon ditch discs as well.
In October, Limited Run Games CEO John Fairhurst said he’d heard rumors the chain was dropping physical Xbox games soon. While Walmart didn’t confirm at the time, the move would line up with gamers increasingly using subscription services like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus.
Target wasn’t immediately available for comment.
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