The second quarter of 2022 was the best quarter for Ultra HD Blu-ray since launch as measured in market share. However, the total video disc market is still in decline.

After surpassing the 10% milestone in late 2021, UHD Blu-ray's market share of the total disc market in the US reached 11.9% in the first quarter of 2022 and 13.4% in the second quarter, according to data compiled by VideoScan / MediaPlayNews and tabularized by Yoeri Geutskens.

UHD Blu-ray and regular Blu-ray combined once again take up close to 50% of the US disc market, with DVDs taking up the rest. For now, it would seem that UHD Blu-ray is growing at the expense of regular Blu-ray.

 Also see: 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray database


 Graph: Yoeri Geutskens. Data: NPD VideoScan / MediaPlayNews

Disc market in decline
The total video disc market is still in decline in the US (and globally) and does not appear to be recovering after the covid-19 lockdowns that delayed new disc releases due to theatrical releases being postponed or moved to streaming.

In the US, video disc sales fell 25.5% from $3.29 billion 2019 to $2.45 billion in 2020, according to the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG), and an additional 20% to $1.97 billion in 2021. In the first quarter of 2022, video disc sales declined 19% year-over-year.

 Also read: PlayStation Store will remove customers' purchased movies

It is encouraging to see UHD Blu-ray make gains but it will unfortunately not bring back discs' glory days. This one is for the collectors.

- Source: twitter, DEG