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Netflix will wind down DVD deliveries this year

It's the end of a 25-year era for Netflix.

Ozzie Mejia

April 18, 2023 1:05 PM

Netflix

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Here's a story for older readers. Remember when Netflix used to be a service about delivering DVDs? (Young readers, please refrain from asking "What are DVDs?") There was a day when Netflix put Blockbuster Video out of business not because of video streaming, but because of its revolutionary rent-by-mail service. Amazingly, this service is still active to this day. However, it won't be active much longer, because Netflix has announced that DVD rentals will officially be sunset later this year.

"After an incredible 25 year run, we’ve decided to wind down DVD.com later this year," reads the statement from the Netflix website. "Our goal has always been to provide the best service for our members but as the business continues to shrink that’s going to become increasingly difficult. So we want to go out on a high, and will be shipping our final discs on September 29, 2023."

As Netflix continues to fall under estimates, shuttering the DVD delivery service is certainly one way to save on operational costs. Unfortunately, even a growing streaming subscriber base, this will be a blow to users in certain parts of rural America where high-speed internet remains elusive. Hopefully, those users can find alternative services like Redbox to continue their usage of physical media.

Netflix's DVD rental service peaked with 40 million unique subscribers across its 25-year history and will finish with more than 5.2 billion discs shipped. We'll keep an eye on the future of Netflix later today, as we monitor the company's Q1 2023 earnings. Follow the Netflix topic page for the latest updates.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?