In bad news for proponents of physical media, Samsung has announced that it is exiting the Blu-ray market. The company said it “will no longer introduce new Blu-ray or 4K Blu-ray player models in the US market” in a statement shared with CNET. Its newest model was released in 2017, and plans to produce a new high-end 4K player this year were scrapped. The move follows a similar decision by Oppo, which announced its own exit from the market last April.
In addition to the fact that streaming movies and TV shows has become the norm over the last several years, Blu-ray hasn’t managed to fully replace DVD as the go-to form of physical media in the way that DVD did to VHS — even after besting the short-lived HD DVD in a format war 11 years ago. Any number of high-profile and/or well received movies have yet to be released on Blu-ray as a result, from James Cameron’s “The Abyss” and “True Lies” to Martin Scorsese’s “Bringing Out the Dead” and William Wyler’s “Roman Holiday,” among many others.
According to The Numbers, “Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi” was the best-selling Blu-ray of 2018 with a little more than three million units sold. It was followed closely by “Black Panther,” with “Avengers: Infinity War,” “The Greatest Showman,” and “Thor: Ragnarok” rounding out the top five; “The Greatest Showman” was the year’s most successful DVD release, meanwhile, having sold nearly 1.9 million units.