Blu-ray Disc, a removable storage format, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. It debuted 20 years ago at the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and was the last popular optical disc format before the popularity of high-speed Internet and the elimination of optical disc distribution methods.
Blu-ray Discs initially had a storage capacity of 25GB, about six times that of DVD; later dual-layer Blu-ray Discs reached 50GB; and some lesser-known new formats, such as BDXL, doubled the capacity to 100GB.
Blu-ray Disc is the first medium to enable high-definition home video distribution. Sony later adapted it to the PlayStation 3 game console, allowing developers to store higher-resolution game footage on a 25GB disc than the competing Xbox 360's 8GB DVD.
Sony continues to use Blu-ray Discs in its optical drive-equipped version of the PlayStation 5 console, while PS5 games use Blu-ray Discs with 100GB capacity to adapt to markets where high-speed internet is not yet widely available.
