Netflix has shipped out its final DVD rentals to customers, marking the end of its 25-year movies-by-mail service that helped put the company on the map.
The streaming giant announced on X: "Netflix will mail its final DVD on September 29, 2023. But the red envelope remains an enduring symbol of our love of entertainment." The post included a picture of a billboard composed of actual DVDs and Netflix red envelopes with the message: "DVDs Will Always Be In Our DNA."
Netflix will mail its final DVD on September 29, 2023.
— Netflix (@netflix) September 28, 2023
But the red envelope remains an enduring symbol of our love of entertainment. pic.twitter.com/vVdjuhJvrb
In a follow-up blog post, Netflix said: "We redefined how people watched films and series at home, and shared the excitement as they opened their mailboxes to our iconic red envelopes. It's the end of an era, but the DVD business built our foundation for the years to come – giving members unprecedented choice and control, a wide variety of titles to choose from and the freedom to watch as much as they want."
Netflix started as a DVD rental company in 1997, with Tim Burton's Beetlejuice being the first disc mailed out to subscribers signed up to the program. More than two decades on, the company made the decision to wind down that part of its business, setting Friday, September 29, 2023, as the official last date of operation.
The company previously announced that customers did not need to return their final discs and could even opt-in for a "final surprise" by requesting up to 10 extra movies to land in their mailboxes in order to clear out stock. "Please enjoy your final shipments for as long as you like," DVD Netflix posted on X in August.
The iconic red envelopes paved the way for Netflix to shift to streaming in 2007, though the physical rental service kept running. While it's unclear how many people still paid for the mail program as of 2023, its revenue plummeted from $200 million in 2020 and 2021 to $100 million last year, indicating the decline in numbers.
Netflix revealed some stats about the service via an infographic in its final farewell blog post. At its peak in 2011, the company's DVD-by-mail rental program hit 20 million subscribers and hit several shipping milestones as time went by. In total, the program has shipped out over five billion movies in the last 25 years.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.
Image credit: Netflix.
