It’s the end of an era following an announcement that Best Buy will stop selling physical media at its stores and online in 2024. Best Buy was at one time the pinnacle epitome of the place to go for purchasing physical media ranging from CDs to VHS>DVD>HD DVD>Blu-Ray>4K discs as well as a goto for video games spanning many generations and makes of consoles and PCs, and now that will soon be just memory. Bill Hunt (The Digital Bits) first broke the news of the pivotal shift for one of America’s last remaining big-box tech stores.
Per The Digital Bits:
“All right, folks… we’ve got a little bit of a whopper for you today. And so as not to bury the lede, let’s get right to it…
The Digital Bits has learned from industry sources—and we’ve confirmed it with multiple sources now—that Best Buy plans to exit the physical media business for good next year, possibly as soon as the end of Q1 2024.“
Bill confirmed that video games and Blu-Ray, DVD, and 4K discs were going to be dropped from Best Buy’s physical and online stores. Not long after this exclusive news was revealed Variety and Media Play News reached out to the retailer and were given the following statement from a Best Buy representative.
Per Variety:
“To state the obvious, the way we watch movies and TV shows is much different today than it was decades ago,” a Best Buy spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. “Making this change gives us more space and opportunity to bring customers new and innovative tech for them to explore, discover and enjoy.”
Even though Best Buy will stop selling physical media at its stores it doesn’t quite signal the end of the industry, yet. The Digital Bits also reports that Walmart currently holds around 45% market share making it the largest seller of video discs, even managing to outsell Amazon. Target continues to sell physical media as well but has been reducing its inventory in recent years. However, it was only around six months ago that the UK supermarket chain Tesco announced that it would stop selling physical media games in its stores. The times are changing and from online streaming to downloading, the end of physical media could be near.