Are CD ROMs Still Used in 2024?

As an avid retro gamer and industry analyst who has followed gaming hardware closely for over a decade, I get this question a lot – and the answer is yes, CD-ROMs are still used in some niche cases, but their mainstream usage has certainly faded.

Back in the 1990s, Compact Disc Read-Only Memory discs revolutionized software distribution by allowing easy data storage and transfer – with capacities up to 700MB. But the rise of new technologies has rendered their use mostly obsolete outside of some retro gaming scenarios.

The Rapid Decline of CD-ROM Usage

CD-ROM sales have decreased sharply in the past 15 years. According to industry research firm Statista, global CD-ROM revenue plunged from over $6 billion in 2000 to just $60 million in 2021. And CD-ROM unit sales dropped over 96% in that period – from over 2.5 billion discs to just 100 million.

New forms of high-capacity rewritable storage and internet connectivity drove this decline. As online storage and downloads increased speed and capacity exponentially since 2000, physical read-only CD-ROMs simply couldn‘t keep pace.

The Impact of New Technologies

Starting in the 2000s, new technologies reduced dependency on CD-ROMs:

• Faster broadband enabled direct software downloads
• Large-capacity USB flash drives offered rewritable convenience
• Cloud storage provided unlimited virtual capacity
• Media streaming displaced CD-based multimedia software

The rise of streaming platforms in particular correlate closely with the CD-ROM revenue decline:

As streaming becomes dominant, reliance on CD-ROMs melted away outside of some legacy use cases.

Where CD-ROMs Are Still Used

CD-ROMs do live on in some niche retro computing scenarios among hobbyists:

• Retro Gaming: Some vintage consoles and early PC games depend on CD-ROMs due to hardcoded DRM and installed base with disc drives
• Boot Discs: Booting old operating systems, rescue tools, or installing drivers sometimes requires a CD-ROM disk
• Running Legacy Software: Certain old productivity suites may technically require a CD-ROM to function

For example, vintage consoles like the Sony PlayStation (1994-2006) still have a passionate user base and require original discs to play most games. And boot discs remain handy for quick OS recovery or installation on older systems. But these cases represent an ever-shrinking fraction of total computing.

CD-ROMs vs Modern Solutions

When compared to cheap, massive modern storage, CD-ROMs seem very dated:

As this comparison shows, modern solutions beat CD-ROMs on price, speed, capacity, and accessibility. Online cloud platforms like Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and more offer free remote storage tiers orders of magnitude beyond CD-ROM limits.

The Future of CD-ROMs

As a gaming industry specialist, I anticipate CD-ROMs will likely fade toward complete obsolete in the coming decade outside of a shrinking niche hobbyist market. Consoles older than the Playstation 4/XBox One generation seem poised to finally lose legacy support over this period.

And on the software side, as Windows 7 extended support ends in 2024, associated boot disc use cases will dwindle as legacy systems are upgraded or replaced entirely. However, it remains possible a subset of retro computing enthusiasts will retain CD-ROMs indefinitely for historical gaming and experiments with vestigial OS environments.

Conclusion

In summary – are CD-ROMs still used as of 2023? Yes, but only in an increasingly niche manner for aging gaming and software scenarios. The average consumer moved on from optical discs long ago thanks to streaming media and cheap, vast modern storage options both locally and in the cloud. And CD-ROMs seem likely to fade into history outside of retro hobbyist circles before 2030.