I'm way behind on email. Thousands of them. I just skim until something catches my eye — and most of it doesn't. But one showed up recently that made me stop: Blu-ray turned 20 this year.
And my first thought wasn't "happy birthday." It was: when did I last actually use mine?
I had to think about it. A while. A long while. At some point streaming just became the default — pull up the app, find something, watch it — and the player quietly stopped being part of the routine. I didn't think I'd ever need discs again. Streaming had everything, and I'm not someone who rewatches movies over and over. Why keep a shelf full of plastic?
So the anniversary got me curious. I did a little poking around. Turns out Blu-ray is still very much alive — which honestly surprised me a little.
Best Buy stopped selling discs in 2023, which felt like the end of the road. But according to the Digital Entertainment Group, 4K Blu-ray sales actually grew 12% in 2025. People are still buying discs — just more deliberately.
Some of it is about ownership. When you buy a movie digitally, you're buying a license — not the movie. Studios can pull it anytime. A disc sitting on your shelf isn't going anywhere.
Thrift stores are worth a mention — you can walk out with a stack of movies for a dollar or two each, cheaper than a single digital rental. My only hesitation would be condition — a scratched disc is a gamble.
Here's my personal twist: I gave away my whole collection years ago. No room for it in my tiny DC apartment, and streaming covered everything. But now I'm back in Kentucky, and I'm thinking about it differently. Elkhorn City gets floods. It gets winter storms that knock things out for days. When the internet goes down, streaming goes with it — and suddenly a shelf of discs starts looking a lot more practical than it used to.
I started writing this thinking physical media was a relic. Now I'm wondering where I'd put a disc shelf in a tiny house.
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Happy belated birthday, Blu-ray.
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Do you still use Blu-ray or DVDs in 2026? Maybe you never stopped. Maybe you're spinning them through a PS5 or Xbox. Maybe you ditched the discs years ago and genuinely don't miss them.
Drop a comment. I'd love to know.