U.S. physical disc sales officially became a sub-billion-dollar business in 2024, a sobering milestone in the DVD’s long decline from household staple to tech novelty. Unfortunately, Digital Entertainment Group’s annual Digital Media Entertainment Report, released earlier this month, confirms 2025 showed no signs of the DVD’s popularity changing course as subscription streaming encompasses even more of the home entertainment industry.
Total U.S. home entertainment spending hit $62.2 billion in 2025, a 17.4% increase from the year before ($52.9 billion) and a 244.2% increase since 2015 ($18.1 billion). That healthy boost was decidedly not helped (or impacted at all, really) by physical product sales, which declined 9.3% YoY to $870 million — an 85.7% drop from 2015 ($6.1 billion).
The results mean yet another consecutive year of shrinking revenue for the U.S. DVD market, which has been on the wane since at least 2008 — one year after Netflix launched its streaming platform.
The market has become so small, in fact, that DEG phased out tracking physical rental spending in 2023. That metric brought in just $304.9 million in its swan-song year, a decrease of 39% from 2022 and roughly 95% since 2011.
Still, there were some small signs of changing prospects for the disc’s future. The last time physical sales declined by single digits was 2016; in the 2020s alone, the yearly drops have been to the tune of 20%-25%.
DEG also noted that sales for premium 4K UHD discs and collectible products were slow but steady throughout the year, even ending with a 12% increase over 2024 sales. These silver linings suggest the DVD’s downturn is at least flattening out and will likely make the vinyl-like rebirth into a specialized luxury item.
On the polar opposite end of the spectrum, subscription streaming revenue reached a new all-time high of $57.5 billion, up 19.8% from 2024. That also means SVOD accounted for 92.4% of the total U.S. home entertainment spending in 2025, up from 90% in 2024.
Looking at it another way: Without SVOD spending, the rest of the U.S. home entertainment market — made up of physical products, video on demand and electronic sell-thru, all of which were down in sales — made only $4.7 billion last year, a drop of 4% from the year prior. For context, non-SVOD spending made up around two-thirds of the total a decade ago.
A run-through of DEG’s available reports shows SVOD is the only category that has had consistent upward growth in at least 14 years, which in turn increasingly props up the entire U.S. home entertainment industry.
While, yes, SVOD’s 5,686.71% growth in revenue from 2011 to 2025 is astonishing, one fact remains: Relying so heavily on a single-income source is a dangerous game for any industry. And as the streaming market is intent on continuing to expand its control over the film and TV industry, that concern will not fade any time soon.
