Blockbuster
Also known as Blockbuster Video, Blockbuster LLC
- Made by
- Blockbuster LLC
Mail-order and then streaming removed the entire reason to drive to a video shop.
At its peak Blockbuster ran more than 9,000 stores and made a meaningful share of its profit from late fees, which is a business model with a natural predator. The last company-owned stores closed in January 2014, four years after bankruptcy. One franchised location in Bend, Oregon is still trading, still renting discs, and has become a tourist destination in its own right, which makes Blockbuster officially dead and demonstrably still open.
Replaced by Streaming video.
Standing in the archive
Rank 54 of 127 by lifespan. Blockbuster outlasted 58% of everything else on file.
Cite this entry
"Blockbuster." How Long It Lasted, https://www.howlongitlasted.com/thing/blockbuster.
Died nearby
- Adobe Flash Playerabout 24 years · killed by a successor
- Amazon Dash Buttonabout 4 years · killed by a successor
- Apple AirPortabout 18 years · killed by a successor
- Betamaxabout 41 years · killed by a successor
- Boeing 74753 years · killed by a successor
Sources
- Last Blockbuster — Wikipedia (archived)
- Oregon city will have last Blockbuster store in the world — NBC News (archived)
Last checked by a human on 24 July 2026