Best Buy Is Phasing Out Sales of DVDs and Blu-Rays This Year

Following Leave the World Behind's timely warning against the total abandonment of physical media, Best Buy is set to begin phasing out its sales of DVD and Blu-ray titles.

As the holiday season gave way to the start of another new year, you likely saw more than a few social media updates on the electronics retailer's final push in this realm. In fact, news of the chain ditching DVD and Blu-ray sales actually came in October of last year.

“To state the obvious, the way we watch movies and TV shows is much different today than it was decades ago,” a Best Buy rep said in a statement to the Associated Press that month after the news was first broken by The Digital Bits. “Making this change gives us more space and opportunity to bring customers new and innovative tech for them to explore, discover and enjoy.”

At the time, it was reported that DVDs and Blu-rays would remain available in stores and online through the end of the holiday season. Also pointed out in the initial reporting last October was that the ceasing of physical sales would not include video game titles.

Complex has reached out to Best Buy for comment. This story may be updated.

As for Leave the World Behind, which debuted on Netflix last month, director Sam Esmail made sure to nicely tuck in a message about the importance of physical media moving forward.

“If an event like the one we depict in this movie actually happens, Netflix isn’t gonna help out with your escapism,” Esmail told Matt Zoller Seitz in a Vulture-published conversation in December. “It’s gonna have to be physical media.”

Speaking of Netflix, the streaming giant also made its own full pivot away from physical media last year with the end of its DVD program. The final discs were shipped in September.

Thankfully, physical media is still available elsewhere, at least for now.