Reference Desk

Are VHS tapes still being made in 2026?

Timeline of VHS manufacturing: DVD rentals overtake VHS in the United States in 2003, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and others end VHS production in South Korea in late 2010, Funai, the last manufacturer of VHS equipment, stops in July 2016, a first straight-to-VHS release in twenty years arrives in 2026, and a 6 September 2026 pull of 611 listings finds no newly made tape. — Funai, the last maker of VHS equipment, stopped in July 2016, and none of the 611 VHS listings in the 6 September 2026 pull was a newly manufactured pre-recorded tape.Illustration: LinkToLooks

Essentially no. Funai of Japan, the last manufacturer of VHS equipment, stopped production in July 2016, and no US affiliate advertiser in a 611-listing VHS pull on 6 September 2026 sells a newly manufactured pre-recorded VHS tape. A niche revival exists: This Is How The World Ends became the first straight-to-VHS release in twenty years in 2026.

Method, in one sentence: every one of the 611 VHS-matching rows in that pull was read individually, and the 238 of them from conventional retailers were classified by what the product actually is.

What a retail search for VHS returns in 2026

Category	What it is	Example from the pull
Documentary about VHS	A DVD or Blu-ray disc	VHS Massacre, VHS Nasty, VHS Resurrection, Movie Hoarders
Retro VHS packaging	Still a disc, in a tape-shaped sleeve	Renegades, listed as Retro VHS Packaging
Band named VHS	A CD or vinyl record	Ghostbusters VHS, Sleazoids, Dr Chrispy, Cronaca Nera
Collectible	A vinyl figure or diorama	Stranger Things VHS Playset; Funko figures in replica sleeves
Bag or accessory	Fabric or moulded plastic	Loungefly A Goofy Movie figural line; VHS-print bucket hats
Newly manufactured pre-recorded tape	None found	-

Close-up of the underside of a black VHS video cassette showing its white tape spool. — Photo: comedy_nose, Public Domain Mark 1.0, via Flickr

The timeline, with dates

Date	Event
2003	DVD rentals overtake VHS in the United States
2003-2008	VHS and DVD combination units remain widely sold; the end of the format's peak period
Late 2010	Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and others end VHS production in South Korea
July 2016	Funai of Japan, the last manufacturer of VHS equipment in the world, ceases production, citing falling sales and a shortage of components
2026	This Is How The World Ends becomes the first straight-to-VHS release in twenty years

What you can still buy

Second-hand tapes, in volume: 611 VHS listings appear in this single pull at a median ask of $18.99. Sealed new-old-stock, at a median of $24.50 across 16 listings. And nothing to play them on that has a warranty, because the players stopped nine years ago. That last point is the one that decides whether buying into the format makes sense: the tapes are cheap and abundant, and the machine is the scarce half.

This survey covers one affiliate network's US catalogue. Boutique labels press small runs of new VHS outside any affiliate feed, and their absence here is not evidence they do not exist. What the survey does establish is that no mainstream US retail channel in this network carries new tape.

Last verified 6 September 2026. Manufacturing dates from the source below; listing figures computed from 611 VHS-matching rows across 19 US advertisers in a product-feed pull made the same day. Price figures are computed from a CJ Affiliate product-feed pull of US advertisers made on 6 September 2026, reading each listing’s sale price where it carries one and its list price otherwise. Peer-to-peer marketplace asks of $500 or more are excluded as seller placeholders, as are repdigit asks such as $999 and $9,999 wherever they appear; retailer prices are used as published. Counts are deduplicated row counts, never a feed totalCount.

Frequently asked

Are VHS tapes still being made?

Not at scale. Funai of Japan, the last manufacturer of VHS equipment, ended production in July 2016, and no US affiliate advertiser in a 611-listing VHS pull on 6 September 2026 sold a newly manufactured pre-recorded VHS tape.

Is there any new VHS release?

Yes, as a niche. This Is How The World Ends, released in 2026, became the first straight-to-VHS release in twenty years. It is a revival at the margins rather than a returning format.

Can you still buy a new VCR?

No. Funai produced the last VHS equipment, VCR and DVD combination units under the Sanyo brand for North America, and stopped in July 2016 citing falling sales and a component shortage. Every VCR available now is second-hand.

Where do the new VHS tapes for sale come from?

New-old-stock. Sealed tapes on resale marketplaces are unopened 1990s stock, including sealed Disney titles and sealed blank Maxell cassettes. Those are old goods being resold, not current manufacture.

Why do retailers list VHS products then?

Because the word has become a subject and a shape. Every retail VHS row in this survey was a documentary about the format on disc, a film reissued in retro VHS-style packaging, an album by a band named VHS, a collectible figure, or a bag or shirt printed as a cassette.

Sources

Wikipedia, VHS — Funai as the last VHS equipment manufacturer and its July 2016 exit citing falling sales and component shortage; the 2003 DVD rental crossover; the 2003-2008 peak of combination units; the 2010 end of Sony VHS production in South Korea; and This Is How The World Ends (2026) as the first straight-to-VHS release in twenty years
CJ Affiliate product feeds, US advertisers, queried 6 September 2026 — the source of every count and price on this page