Video Games

Best Buy will reportedly stop selling physical media in 2024

The tech retailer will stop selling Blu-Ray and more online as well

Josh Broadwell

Best Buy will reportedly stop selling physical media in 2024
Best Buy will reportedly stop selling physical media in 2024 /

Update: Oct. 13, 2023

Best Buy told Variety that it will sell DVDs and Blu-Ray through the holiday 2023 season before ceasing sales of physical media in 2024. Best Buy also said it will continue selling video games.

 “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 told Variety. “Making this change gives us more space and opportunity to bring customers new and innovative tech for them to explore, discover, and enjoy.” 

Original Story: Oct. 12, 2023

Best Buy will reportedly stop selling physical media in stores and online, presumably including video games, and the change may happen as soon as early 2024. The news comes from The Digital Bits, who says that multiple industry sources confirmed Best Buy’s plans. The retail chain has made no official announcement yet, however.

The Digital Bits’ sources say that Best Buy will stop selling physical media – including Blu-Ray discs, DVDs, and Best Buy-exclusive steelbooks – as soon as the end of Q1 2024. Best Buy’s fiscal year begins in February, so if The Digital Bits’ sources are correct, you can potentially expect to see no more discs and cartridges in Best Buy stores or online by the end of April 2024.

Best Buy will reportedly begin scaling back media sales soon / Best Buy

The Best Buy website still hosts listings for physical video game releases in 2024, such as Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, including some with placeholder dates after the end of the company’s first fiscal quarter.

Responses to the news were not happy.

“Back to GameStop we go,” one user wrote above a sad Bart Simpson GIF.

“Guess my business will go elsewhere going forward, I literally only went to them for the Steelbooks [sic],” another said.

If the report is accurate, Best Buy’s move comes as part of a growing shift away from physical media both in movies and video games. Some publishers are opting for digital-only releases to save money, as with the upcoming Alan Wake 2 launch from Remedy, though even some physical games are impossible to play without a large download thanks to ever-growing file sizes.

Microsoft split its current-gen Xbox consoles into the traditional Xbox Series X and digital-only Series S, and even Nintendo is rumored to have a digital-only model of the Switch 2 in the works.

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Josh Broadwell
JOSH BROADWELL

Josh is a freelance writer and reporter who specializes in guides, reviews, and whatever else he can convince someone to commission. You may have seen him on NPR, IGN, Polygon, or Rolling Stone shouting about RPGs. When he isn’t working, you’ll likely find him outside with his Belgian Malinois and Australian Shepherd or leveling yet another job in FFXIV.

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