The world of at-home entertainment has taken a big hit as Best Buy is completely dropping out of the physical media business. DVDs and Blu-rays will soon no longer be available at any Best Buy stores. The news was initially reported by The Digital Bits, and Best Buy later confirmed the news to Variety. 

Best Buy was the holy grail for physical media lovers for many years. Their exclusive releases were among the most sought-after editions on the market, and their stores featured massive selections of titles both in-store and online. 

With the rise of streaming services, the physical media industry has changed.

As streaming services present a seemingly endless selection of movies and series at the click of a button, the need for owning actual physical copies has eventually become irrelevant to most people. Correlating to sales continuously dropping year after year.

The ongoing drop in sales has now officially led to one of the biggest physical media retailers seemingly cutting their losses and moving on. The void that Best Buy’s decision will leave within the market will be drastically felt among the community of collectors and enthusiasts who still buy and support physical media. 

To the delight of such enthusiasts, Walmart appears to be committed to picking up Best Buy’s slack. 

While Best Buy was widely considered the hub of physical media enthusiasts, Walmart has always been the highest-selling retailer in the physical media market. According to Media Play News, their market share is an estimated 45%.

Since Best Buy confirmed that they will soon be done with physical media back in October of 2023, Walmart has realized an opportunity to take over the share of the market that Best Buy is leaving behind. 

Walmart is now partnering with distributors to obtain more exclusive editions of Blu-Rays and DVDs that previously could only be found at Best Buy. They have also put more effort into their physical media sections in stores by dedicating rows and sections to special editions such as new releases and steel books. 

Moving forward, Walmart’s already massive role in the physical media world will only get bigger with seemingly very little competition from other brick-and-mortar stores. 

Physical media on a wide scale has undergone some rather big changes over the last couple of years. However, one aspect that has not been affected is the independent retailers. 

Criterion, Vinegar Syndrome, Arrow Video, and Scream Factory are just a few of the many independent retailers of physical media. These companies pay for the rights to certain films through the studios and release their special edition copies of those films for fans to purchase. 

Retailers such as these have not been affected by the significant market shift because their customer base is more specific. They mainly cater to the physical media enthusiasts and collectors as opposed to the casual movie watchers. 

Their catalogs feature more obscure titles that only film buffs will seek out for the most part, and their releases often come at a higher price point than your average new release. They also operate mostly online, which lowers the possibility of the average person seeing one of their releases in their everyday store. 

While the days of physical media being mainstream seem to be in the rearview mirror, thanks to Walmart stepping up their game and the independent retailers sticking to their guns, enthusiasts and collectors will still be able to stock their shelves with their favorite films and series for the time being. 

Even though physical media might be slowly becoming a thing of the past, that doesn’t rule out a return to the glory days in the future. After all, if vinyl can have a resurgence in the modern world, why can’t physical media?