DVD Sales Decline Slows Sharply as Gen Z Discovers the Appeal of Physical Media (yahoo.com) 89
DVD and Blu-ray sales have been in freefall for years, but the decline is slowing considerably as Gen Z buyers turn to physical media and drive a measurable uptick at video rental stores and retailers across the U.S.
Overall disc sales fell just 9% last year after dropping more than 20% in both 2023 and 2024, according to the Digital Entertainment Group, and U.S. consumers spent 12% more on 4K UHD Blu-rays in 2025 than the prior year. The Criterion Collection, a leading boutique Blu-ray label, confirmed significant year-over-year sales increases that its president credits to younger customers.
Vidiots, a video store in Los Angeles, averaged 170 rentals a day in January 2026 -- its biggest month ever -- after loaning about 22,000 discs total in 2023 and roughly 50,000 in 2024. Barnes & Noble reported DVD and Blu-ray sales growth of "mid-double digits" over the past year.
Overall disc sales fell just 9% last year after dropping more than 20% in both 2023 and 2024, according to the Digital Entertainment Group, and U.S. consumers spent 12% more on 4K UHD Blu-rays in 2025 than the prior year. The Criterion Collection, a leading boutique Blu-ray label, confirmed significant year-over-year sales increases that its president credits to younger customers.
Vidiots, a video store in Los Angeles, averaged 170 rentals a day in January 2026 -- its biggest month ever -- after loaning about 22,000 discs total in 2023 and roughly 50,000 in 2024. Barnes & Noble reported DVD and Blu-ray sales growth of "mid-double digits" over the past year.
It's got nothing to do with appeal (Score:5, Insightful)
So the streaming services are basically a wasteland and if I'm going to pay eight bucks to rent something I might as well just buy it on DVD for 15 or 20.
The only trend that's kind of fucking that up is these shitty 4K blu-rays. Seriously I do not need a 4K Blu-ray for a 1980s grindhouse horror movie. Meanwhile it's a huge pain in the ass to play those because the DRM is extremely onerous. Hell it's hard enough getting a Blu-ray to play on a computer. And if you have a first generation Blu-ray drive it may not even play the current discs because they have updated the DRM. If you've ever been in a thrift store and seen a stack of old Blu-ray players that's why...
It really pisses me off when I'm sitting here as a legitimate customer and I get a better experience if I pirate the damn thing. Never mind if you're an anime fan and you want something from the '90s cuz 2/3 of it is out of print. I am still salty that the original tenchi muyo ovas are literally nowhere you can access them legally except paying a scalper on eBay or pirating them. If you're a anime fan with a bit of History that's a foundational show. Like it's up there with Gundam.
Re:It's got nothing to do with appeal (Score:4, Interesting)
I dunno. You might watch low-quality stuff - I dunno - but there's plenty of high-quality productions where bluray (even if it's not 4K) offer a definite advantage over streaming. Audio is also much higher quality streamed. Heavy compression may be ok if you're not used to anything decent or not watching anything decent, but high quality sound is always going to win for me.
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One has to put this in perspective. On the rdos "Aspie Quiz" (which, at least of the previous version, followed the official diagnostic procedures for autism extremely closely and accurately measured "autism levels"), I score 178 out of 200, well into the upper range for autism. I've been officially dxed with autism and complex ADHD. Amongst a bunch of other stuff.
I hyperfixate (though generally not on Slashot, interestingly, although again there are exceptions), and my language will, at times, get blunt. A
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I started lurking in 4K enthusiast groups to see if they were all cracked up to be. The arguments about relative quality of various BD/4K releases isn't even the most interesting part.
It turns out that there are a lot of issues with set top boxes playing particular disks. The disks themselves also seem terribly fussy.
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Yeah, the disks themselves seem pretty delicate as they're probably close to the limits of what the existing tech can handle in terms of data per disk. I had one that played properly once and then never played without glitches again; fortunately Amazon returns took it back and send me another copy.
But I gather a lot of people just play them once to rip them to a hard drive and then put the original disk away.
Re:It's got nothing to do with appeal (Score:4, Insightful)
Movie sound is terrible today. Not once during the VHS era did anyone complain that they couldn't understand the dialog over the sound effects or music. 192Khz 24bit sampling is also overkill. There is no way you'd be able to tell a movie is playing with that or 44Khz 16 bit audio. And I'm sorry but actors do mumble now. Compare them against classic actors like Christopher Lee, Vincent Price, Patrick Stewart, etc etc.
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Also the price of a used DVD is often cheaper than the price of the online streaming license.
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True, but so is gold.
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Seriously I do not need a 4K Blu-ray for a 1980s grindhouse horror movie.
So, don't buy the 4K version? I've yet to encounter anything being released only in 4K format, which I thought still also commanded something of a price premium over the usual 1080p versions.
Personally, I solved DRM permanently by buying an HDMI capture device. If I can watch it, I can record it. Problem solved. Though, admittedly, it's rare that something can't just be sourced from the high seas.
If you've ever been in a thrift store and seen a stack of old Blu-ray players that's why...
My local Goodwill's electronics section consists almost exclusively of old WiFi routers and DVD (not Blu-Ray
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So there isn't a regular Blu-ray (Score:2)
And yeah I can get around the DRM that's not the issue. I don't want to get around the DRM I want to buy a disc and put it in my computer and play the damn thing. I'm a paying customer.
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> The only trend that's kind of fucking that up is these shitty 4K blu-rays. Seriously I do not need a 4K Blu-ray for a 1980s grindhouse horror movie
You probably don't need it period. Movies are generally mastered in 2K. It's a rare movie that isn't. And the more special effects there are, the more likely it is 2K.
(It's really weird, because the cameras they use are typically 4-6K, but apparently Hollywood's mastering process is way lower res than the cameras are. There are exceptions, Christopher Nolan
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The cameras are higher resolution than the mastering to allow for cropping without loss of quality.
4k does have some advantages for older movies. It helps preserve the film grain, making it look less like a modern bland CGI demo reel. It also helps reduce the effects of digital aliasing, so it simply looks more like a projected movie as you would have seen it originally, than a 1080p version.
The main thing though is simply that it gives the studio another chance not to screw it up. A lot of 1080p releases w
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I've seen a number of people complain about the 4K Lord of the Rings trilogy because they "enhanced" it to look more consistent with the Hobbit movies. So there's also a chance for more enshitification.
I've also seen a few soft shots which weren't out-of-focus enough to spot on DVD or Bluray but are now visible in 4K.
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Another advantage is that if one buys movies on DVD, they cannot be taken away from them. This isn't DIVX [dvdjournal.com] (not the codec.) Blu-Ray is still iffish on what movies are copyable and which are not, but DVD is good enough, and can easily play offline if one has a player for it.
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> The only trend that's kind of fucking that up is these shitty 4K blu-rays. Seriously I do not need a 4K Blu-ray for a 1980s grindhouse horror movie. Meanwhile it's a huge pain in the ass to play those because the DRM is extremely onerous.
From what I hear it's easier to rip 4K Blurays than DVDs these days. All the region and copy protection is done in software so you only need the decryption key and there's none of the stupid stuff they used to do on Blurays putting hundreds of fake copies of the movie
I have a suggestion... (Score:2)
Perhaps we can call this the "Leaving Soon" effect.
Less enshittification (Score:5, Insightful)
Streaming services are one of the pinnacles of enshittification. You pay for stuff you don't own. Everything can be taken away from you at any time. Ads can be added at any time, etc.
Having physical media means that you can get a simple DRM-free file from it, you can watch whenever and wherever you want.
Possessopn is 9/10th's of the law... (Score:2)
Even though you still technically don't own the work.
But, you don't have to worry about: "I'm altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it further".
Plus you are not a recurring revenue source for some big corporation.
With DVD's being cracked encryption-wise they're just a flexible as audio CD's, although ripping them is still currently illegal due to the DMCA.
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Ripping may be illegal but it's completely (as in zero risk) unenforceable unless you try to distribute the rip. Of course, if we all used cloud-based OS' that would dramatically increase the risk of ripping or even viewing Open Sea media.
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Streaming services are one of the pinnacles of enshittification. You pay for stuff you don't own. Everything can be taken away from you at any time. Ads can be added at any time, etc.
Having physical media means that you can get a simple DRM-free file from it, you can watch whenever and wherever you want.
Basically my thoughts. Is it the appeal of physical media, or the increasing enshittification as streaming services fracture, remove content, increase prices... I need to stop talking about all the crap they are doing.
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Actually, rather than DRM, the main benefit of physical media is that we own something unalterable by the powers that be. As we saw in 2020, production houses started changing the contents of classic movies, such as eliminating Confederate flags in "Gone with the Wind" and replacing that with Union flags, completely changing the story. With streaming services, one is stuck with that, but if one had a DVD or a BluRay, then one would continue to see what one bought (assuming it was pre 2020), rather than wh
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I was just thinking of this actually while recently re-watching the Lucasfilm updated versions of the "original" Star Wars trilogy recently and thinking that it would be nice to have DVD copies of the actual original versions.
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Ask and y'all shall receive: Star Wars [amazon.com]
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Streaming services are one of the pinnacles of enshittification.
Streaming is great for watching things you don't want to buy, or to find that one in a dozen movies you didn't know (or didn't think) you'd want to watch more than once. It's a useful tool if you use it appropriately.
Re: Less enshittification (Score:2)
Physical media is a waste of resources at a time when we are already doing everything possible to destroy this planet.
Also, physical media makes little sense for movies/shows you will only watch once. Which is most of them. Again, it becomes wasteful because I either have to have to drive to Blockbuster or have Netflix mail me a DVD.
I completely understand criticizing the way streaming is implemented, but in no way does physical media provide a real advantage. If it became popular again, they would just fin
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I would pick a happy medium b/w physical storage vs virtual. It would be electronic storage that's there w/ you, rather than on the "cloud", which is essentially a computer you have no way of controlling
For instance, take encyclopedias. If one goes by Wiki, one is at the mercy of activists on any story. But if one has classic encyclopedias from the last century, one has what is needed. Only problem: paper is not a long term durable medium, so better to have that electronically. But rather than have i
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I know I'm being pedantic, and paper encyclopedias have a lot of disadvantages vs. a virtual copy (size, ability to search etc.), but given we don't really know how long a DVD can last, I'd say paper is the safer medium.
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My wife goes to the library almost weekly and gets 10-15 DVD's and Blu-rays, though mostly DVD's as the Blu-rays are more likely not to play.
These are a combination of recent releases and old releases such as today I noticed Adam-12 in her pile.
Extra handy as we don't have the best internet, LTE with a 500GB data cap.
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Streaming services are one of the pinnacles of enshittification. You pay for stuff you don't own...
And yet, I get to watch a ton of stuff I don't own and would never want to buy. For far less money than if I bought everything I watch.
It's almost as if a lot of people have figured out that buying isn't always a great deal.
Re:Less enshittification (Score:4, Interesting)
You've missed the point. In many cases ownership isn't the goal, entertainment is. But how am I supposed to be entertained when I want to sit down and watch say John Wick only to find that Netflix has 2, 3, and 4 but not the original. Or Amazon seems to have like every second Mission Impossible movie.
I happily pay for things I don't own, if those things entertain me, ownership isn't required for entertainment, but streaming video is failing to do even that.
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You're an slashdot and you don't know how to make physical copies of streaming stuff?
Re: Less enshittification (Score:2)
Agreed, especially with the fact that titles will randomly disappear based upon what the service feels like paying a license for. This results in seemingly popular movies just not being available, which keeps surprising us. Case in point, we wanted to watch the DiCaprio/Danes Romeo and Juliet, and it wasn't available on any streaming service except to "rent" for $4.99. We found the dvd in the basement and watched it instead.
I miss going to blockbuster with my girlfriend and wandering around, looking at what
Too bad the physical media landscape isn't good (Score:5, Interesting)
No, HD-DVD and Bluray don't count...both of them were too expensive, too limited and too encumbered by the format war between them, and never became as attractive as DVD. DVD is popular because it's cheap and easy to work with, but it's held back my the legacy MPEG2 codec requirements of the DVD format.
All the world really needed or wanted, was simply an incrementally updated "DVD2" format, that leverages modern codecs to put high-definition content on existing, dirt-cheap DVD-9 discs...giving us 9GB of high-definition video on cheap, reliable commodity hardware, backward compatible with existing DVDs, and then we would be good with that forever, just like we are good with audio CDs forever...but we can't have nice things because mega media corporations, copyright and patent law, and lobbying, so BluRay and HD-DVD will both die, and there will be no suitable final form physical video format.
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yeah but 1080p h.264 on dvd9 would be good enough for most people..
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Agreed, format wars were stupid, but DVD has limited capacity and there's not much you can do about that. DVD-9 is fine, but heavy on the CPU, and (whilst backwards compatible) is nonetheless another standard.
Re:Too bad the physical media landscape isn't good (Score:5, Interesting)
FWIW HD DVD could work with both the HD DVD media and old fashioned 9G disks. It was medium neutral in that respect. The problems were:
1. It didn't take off.
2. It was assumed, correctly, that the expense of blue lasers - the only real reason to continue using 9G discs - would eventually come down. HD DVD's 30G discs weren't any more expensive to press than red laser 9G DVD media, it used the same equipment with the exception of the master creation system itself.
3. It was assumed since the start that H.264 couldn't compress 2K/1080P video with the same quality that MPEG2 compresses 480P/576P at DVD bitrates. I think, after a decade of streaming services generally topping out at 4-5Mbps for 2K, that this isn't really true.
But in theory Hollywood could have made cheap disks with high definition movies on them at streaming rates had HD DVD succeeded, but preferred Blu-ray's DRM. Which... well, not come across a BD I couldn't rip, so that was a waste of everyone's time.
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No, HD-DVD and Bluray don't count...both of them were too expensive, too limited and too encumbered by the format war between them, and never became as attractive as DVD.
I think "Were too expensive" is operative here. Blu-Rays are pretty cheap these days. You can pick them up used at thrift stores for a couple bucks each. If you deal hunt on Amazon you get get them for $5 new. Even UHDs aren't bad, especially if you buy in bulk. You can get the Alfred Hitchcock Ultimate Collection UHD box set on Amazon for $112. That's 14 movies, which averages $8 per film.
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Exactly. I have a shelf full of bluray bought for cheap.
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Yeah, I was going through the "$5 Bluray" display at a store yesterday while waiting for my girlfriend to finish her shopping. Didn't buy any because they were mostly post-2010 Hollywood slop but there were a bunch of movies I'd heard of in there.
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One thing I don't get - what's wrong w/ flash memory here? They easily match the densities offered by DVDs (16-32GB), Blu-ray (32-128GB). SD cards have lock buttons that both vendors and customers can use, and the other legacy memory formats are there as well - CompactFlash, memory sticks, xD cards,... - any of which could have been used. Also, if vendors wanted it for DRM purposes, they could even have had flash memory w/ read-protect features, which would have prevented copying of movies
Re: Too bad the physical media landscape isn't goo (Score:2)
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All the world really needed or wanted, was simply an incrementally updated "DVD2" format, that leverages modern codecs to put high-definition content on existing, dirt-cheap DVD-9 discs
Sorry but no, at the time the world adopted next gen media H.264 was only in its infancy. So far in its infancy that even this antique (by today's standard) codec didn't even make it into the first round of next gen video formats which were mostly still encoded in MPEG-2, though modern players are now required to support H.264.
What the world wanted and needed was a format that could store 4x the resolution. Nothing more. The answer to that was bigger disks. Any alternate solution would have required a time
hybrid (Score:3)
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Exactly. Buy the physical media for stuff you like before it disappears from streaming sites.
Re:hybrid (Score:4, Interesting)
Streaming is inherently quality-capped - there's only so much pipe coming out of the streaming service, it's gotta handle an Internet clogged with cats and porn (and, trust me, you don't want the cats in the Interwebs batbatbatting your film to knock it over the edge), and it's got to be a simple enough format that low-end low-power laptop/phone CPUs can handle it.
So it's partly watch-forever for DVDs, but also a case of what to do if you really really want high quality.
Blockbuster Comeback Too? (Score:3)
There's currently only one: https://bendblockbuster.com/ [bendblockbuster.com]
That may double at the rate things are going.
Re:Blockbuster Comeback Too? (Score:5, Funny)
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If a second location opens, that would make Blockbuster the fastest-growing DVD rental company in the world!
Pawn shops (Score:1)
Wait till they discover pawn shops with floor to ceiling shelves full of DVD and Blu-ray, prices next to free. Boomers die off and leave huge collections of media that sloshes around in eBay and other such venues.
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An even better source of DVD's: Your local swap meet (usa) or car boot sale (uk).
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We've been collecting physical movies for a long time, far longer than streaming services were a thing. For a long time my collection was predominantly Laserdisc of all things and my wife's was mostly VHS as her family had been recording off of TV for decades.
At this point DVD and Blu-Ray comprise most of our movie and TV collection but I still have well over 500 laserdiscs.
The only annoyance is physical storage. But with something like 2700 titles that isn't exactly surprising.
We got into physical media
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I get a lot of DVDs from a large bi-annual charity book sale. Much cheaper than buying things new (especially for TV series).
MPEG2 is ass, though (Score:2)
DVDs were fine in their day, but even for SD content the artifacts of MPEG2 are quite noticeable compared against more modern compression codecs. It's worth mentioning too that with a good source and a bit of post-processing, you can still squeeze a bit more detail out of standard definition studio masters than what DVD's 480p resolution is capable of. You might've noticed this when streaming old TV series, that they actually have a better copy of the show than how it looks on the DVDs you're able to purc
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If you want to stream and store every single episode of Thunderbirds in 1K, you're welcome to try. Although International Rescue might stop you.
(It's a pity that the 4K upgrades they did on two episodes weren't popular in the cinemas - the quality was impressive and actually showed just how much effort was put into making high quality models even for a cheap show in the 1960s. You couldn't upscale the early Doctor Who stories to 4K without a LOT of cleanup, the props weren't nearly to the same standard.)
Re: MPEG2 is ass, though (Score:2)
To be fair, when DVDs were designed all TVs were CRTs and the outpht from the player was analogue. Because of this there was always subtle low pass filtering on video so the artifacts are less noticeable. With high precision LCDs it's a different story especially if it's a pure digital signal path via hdmi.
Only way I'll buy a movie (Score:3)
If something isn't available to buy as a bluray/4K bluray, then it's off to the high seas we go!
sick and tired of "virtual" (Score:2)
Fewer choices and higher streaming costs (Score:2)
Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
And, other than a few anecdotes, there is no evidence there has been an increase in DVD purchases by any particular age group. You have to have a player machine, for one thing, so that is a barrier for any younger people getting interested.
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You have to have a player machine, for one thing, so that is a barrier for any younger people getting interested.
$25 on Amazon, next-day delivery. Not a barrier.
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I know some sales people who would like to use this technique to spin their declining numbers!
Ownership is Power (Score:5, Insightful)
Feels good, doesn't it? Having control over something. No one tell you when you can and can't use it. Or today it's and extra $2 for access. You can even charge others to use it or freely share it. The choice yours.
Corporations really don't want us to own anything anymore, because ownership is power.
U.S. law puts a heavy thumb on the scales of justice when it comes to property rights.
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No one tell you when you can and can't use it.
Go play that DVD in front of a live audience and charge admission, or even free. Then get back to me after the MPAA comes knocking.
You'll find you still don't own it. You own a restricted license.
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At least in America (not sure which jurisdiction you're from), you do own that authorized copy of a movie on DVD, and you never have to license it. (I bet most people wouldn't even know how to get a DVD license!) It's copyright law itself, not a license, which regulates public performance.
Yes, it's illegal to disable your catalytic converter, but that doesn't mean you don't "own" your car, does it? In many states, it's illegal to put certain chemicals into your body, but does that really mean you don't own
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Meh, not so much. I pay for entertainment to be entertained. I don't really get the ownership fetish. Entertainment is entertainment regardless of whether it comes from a DVD you own yourself, a DVD you rent, a Streaming service sending you bits, a theater projecting onto a screen, or a bunch of actors putting on a live stage show.
If you're so focused on "owning" entertainment then you've fundamentally missed the point of entertainment. Anyway I'm off to bed, just got back from a concert. No one you'll know
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Older Gen Z women make far better wives than middle-group Millennial women...
There Are DVD Rental Places? (Score:2)
The biggest news in this blurb is the fact that there are still places that rent DVDs. Where the hell are these places? Hells, you can't even BUY DVDs, or Blurays, locally around here, unless you're willing to go to Walmart. Where are these fabled DVD rentals available?
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We have a video rental store about fifty miles from here. We also often borrow DVDs and Blurays from the local library.
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We have a video rental store about fifty miles from here. We also often borrow DVDs and Blurays from the local library.
Library I knew about, I'm just shocked to learn there are still rental places.
Coming next... (Score:3)
Non-Revocable privilege to use said CD. (Score:2)
Burnt (Score:2)
Nice. What are they burning to them?
This subject is ass (Score:2)
wait till they find used CD stores (Score:2)
Kids are going to flip when they find out you can buy music albums and movies for under $5. And pick through piles of stuff that is completely new to them.