Physical home media has gone through a turbulent time the last few years. With the rise of streaming services, demand for physical media over the past few years has steadily declined, with people choosing the convenience of streaming over physical discs.
There’s still a dedicated fanbase of physical media collectors, though, and more recently streaming price rises and splintering means people have more interest just owning the stuff they want to watch. Iāve been writing about my hope for the resurgence of 4K Blu-ray, and physical media in general, since 2023. Now in 2026, Iām actually more hopeful than ever. It couldnāt come at a better time either, with the 20th anniversary of Blu-rayās debut on June 20th, 2026.
I recently spoke to Kath Summersgill, Joint Group Head of Sales at Key Production Group, a manufacturer specializing primarily in music manufacturing with vinyl, cassette and CD. However, the group also works with Blu-ray, both video and audio varieties, and DVD. We discussed the state of Blu-ray production, and physical media in general, and she had some encouraging things to say.
Promising numbers
āWeāve seen an increase in Blu-ray sales of over 10,000%, particularly in Blu-ray Audioā Kath tells me. āThatās over the span of the past eight to 10 years.ā For a format thatās been on the decline, thatās an incredibly encouraging number.
Kath then mentions the ERA (Entertainment Retailerās Association) report from December 2025, which reveals sales revenue for Music, Video and Gaming sales. āAlthough there was an overall decrease in the physical video format, Blu-ray actually increased by 3%ā. While that may not sound like a lot, itās a positive after some particularly bad numbers.
If you read more into the 2025 ERA report, 4K Blu-ray sales increased 19.5%, which is an extremely encouraging number. The strongest selling disc of the year was Wicked, a disc I regularly use for testing AV equipment and one of the main highlights of our Blu-ray Bounty feature (more on that later).
So, why have 4K Blu-ray sales turned around? For that answer, weāll have to look to streaming services.
You can’t rely on streaming
One of the most frustrating things people have with streaming services is the availability of movies. At one time or another, most people will have experienced a movie leaving a streaming service, only for it to either go to a rival service (that typically you wonāt subscribe to) or for it just to disappear.
Iāve even seen horror stories of people buying movies on a streaming service that then also disappear. A Reddit thread in the r/AmazonPrime subreddit is a great example of this, where user u/Electrical_Paper6286 has had it happen ā4 times between 2 moviesā. Although the movies eventually returned, itās a sign of how tentative the āownershipā of movies on streaming platforms can be.
Itās one of the key issues affecting peopleās trust in streaming services and something thatās driving people to physical media. Kath relates it to vinyl. āWe know that vinyl is never ever going to replace streaming, but it exists very happily alongside it. I think that Blu-ray is the same, it offers different things that streaming doesn’t. It’s very much something that you can have and hold and you can keep and you can play over and over again.ā
Kath also points out another issue with online-based movie and music streaming. ā[With physical] you’re not at the whim of your internet connection speed, or whether or not certain libraries drop certain titles, licence changesā.
This is another frustration. Numerous times Iāve gone to watch a movie on streaming and due to connection issues , itās either streamed in reduced quality, buffered or just not streamed at all. This isnāt a problem with physical media.
A passionate fanbase
As I mentioned above, Iām a budding collector of 4K Blu-ray. While I donāt have fully stacked shelves (yet), I do have a collectorās edition or two and more than a few steelbooks.
In FilmStoriesā article about the ERA 2025 report, they mention that steelbooks and special editions helped the growth in 4K Blu-ray in the UK, with every one in 10 4K Blu-rays released having some sort of steelbook or special edition, and due to their higher prices, they made up Ā£2 of every Ā£10 spent on 4K Blu-ray in 2025.
I tell Kath Iām a sucker for nice packaging and she agrees and she relates it to a recent vinyl release that Key Production Group handled. āWe find people are doing this. We did a vinyl release recently with 72 variants and even though the packaging was the same, the color of the vinyl was different.ā
(Iām also a sucker for colored vinyl, with a rust-effect Jack White/Dead Weather release from a Third Man Records Vault collection being a particular highlight in my stack.)
While special editions are great, itās also the work of independent distributors and manufacturers, delivering more excellent 4K restorations than ever, that gets more people to invest in 4K Blu-ray.
The Criterion Collection and Arrow Video are two of the big names, but other organizations such as Kino Lorber, Shout Factory, Boutique Home Video and the BFI are crucial. These companies are producing more sought-after titles and giving them excellent restorations that mean people want to own them in the best possible quality.
In November 2024, I started the Blu-ray Bounty. This is an ongoing monthly column where I test the latest 4K Blu-rays from each month ā and since its debut, the column has been growing.
Weāre covering more discs than ever, covering a wider range of genres, and I have a feeling itās only going to get bigger. Iāve produced tons of lists of excellent 4K titles that are perfect for showing off home theater systems, such as this 6 action movies list and 6 classic movies that show what 4K can do. and a good chunk of my reference discs for AV testing came from the Blu-ray Bounty.
Iām also an active user of the r/4kbluray subreddit and this is again one of the most passionate subreddits Iāve come across. Users update each other on releases, give their thoughts and reviews on the latest titles and always showing off their collections in the best possible way.
While it may well have been doom-and-gloom for 4K and Blu-ray in the last couple of years, I for one am hopeful for its future. What better way to celebrate Blu-rayās 20th anniversary than with some good news.
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