Summary
- 4K Blu-ray sales rose 12% in the US in 2025, contributing to physical media's small rebound.
- Overall, physical media fell 9.3% to $870M, but the decline has slowed versus prior years.
- Streaming dominates — subscriptions increased 19.8% to $57.5 billion, over 92% of home entertainment spend.
While streaming is clearly the way most people watch movies and TV, it looks like physical 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays are making a minor comeback.
According to a new report from the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) (via Flatpanelshd), Blu-ray sales in the US increased by 12 percent in 2025 compared to 2024. Overall physical media spending, which includes DVDs, Blu-rays, and 4K Blu-rays, fell just short of 10 percent of overall spending.
The DEG notes that thanks to 4K Blu-ray sales, the physical media sector "showed some resilience," despite streaming absolutely dominating the space. In total, physical media sales in the US hit $870 million in 2025, a 9.3 percent decrease from last year.
It's also important to note that physical media sales are overall on a downward trend, though that nosedive has slowed down considerably. For example, Flatpanelshd reports that optical disc sales fell 23.4 percent from 2023 to 2024, making the most recent decline look far better by comparison.
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Streaming is obviously still the way most people watch TV shows and movies
Physical Blu-ray use will likely continue to decline
Streaming continues to dominate the space, with the DEG stating that "spending on subscription streaming in the aggregate rose 19.8 percent for the full year 2025, reaching $57.5 billion, and accounting for more than 92 percent of all U.S. consumer spending on home entertainment." Given the number of streaming platforms available in the US, this statistic isn't surprising.
It's likely that 4K Blu-ray will continue to attract viewers of TV shows and movies who care about visual quality for years to come, though I expect sales numbers to continue to dwindle slowly. While some streaming services can reach decent bitrates, the quality just doesn't compare to a physical Blu-ray. For example, Apple TV+ can hit a peak bitrate of 40Mbps — though it usually sits between 15-31Mbps — while physical Blu-ray can reach 144Mbps, offering far more detail, brighter colors, and an overall better picture than streaming is capable of.
You can find the DEG's full study here. In other physical media-related news, reports surfaced in late January that Sony planned to end production of blank physical Blu-ray discs, but they turned out to be inaccurate. Back in 2023, LG stopped making physical Blu-ray players —Sony and Panasonic are two of the last major manufacturers in the space.