Despite technically superior alternatives such as Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray, there are still plenty of people who insist on buying their favorite movies and TV shows on the ubiquitous but aging DVD format. This has been made clear by a chart compiled by FlatpanelsHD, which collected the latest data from Niesen VideoScan and Media Play News to show that the DVD market has actually grown by nearly 20 percent over the last few years, even throughout disruptive events such as the ongoing pandemic. The chart also seems to confirm early speculation that Ultra HD Blu-ray would slowly but surely cannibalize the standard Blu-ray format due to the latter being a middle ground that provides neither the best quality nor cheapest pricing.
Some Ultra HD enthusiasts frequently suggest that movie studios should stop releasing DVDs, apparently thinking that consumers would then upgrade to higher-quality formats. I don’t expect that would happen. The cost-conscious DVD buyers would more likely switch to streaming options. Studios would be crazy to stop the cash cow that DVD still is. And it provides essential volume for the optical disc replication plans, of which there are fewer now than during the peak days of CD and DVD, to keep running at a decent load.
Source: FlatpanelsHD