TV Makers Give Up on 8K—4K Wins Big
Big TV companies are slowly stopping 8K TVs because most people don’t really need them. They say 4K TVs are good enough for everyday viewing. Very few people buy 8K TVs, and there are almost no movies or shows made in 8K.
LG Display has stopped making 8K screens for both LCD and OLED TVs because sales were very low. LG will also not make more units of its last 8K TV, the 2024 QNED99T.
Other brands have done the same. TCL stopped making 8K TVs in 2023 because customers were not buying them. Sony’s 8K TV lineup ended in April 2025, and the possibility of its TV business being sold to TCL is also being considered. Overall, 8K is being viewed by companies as too costly and not very useful at the moment, while 4K is seen as more affordable, widely used, and supported by plenty of available content.
LG joins the rest of the world, accepts that people don’t want 8K TVs https://t.co/8Gr7tTihCv
— Ars Technica (@arstechnica) January 30, 2026
This ends years of hype. In 2012, Sharp showed the first 8K TV at CES. By 2015, super-expensive ones ($133,000!) sold in Japan. Samsung brought cheaper ones ($3,500) to the US in 2018. LG made the first 8K OLED in 2019. Tech rules like HDMI 2.1 helped, but 8K flopped.
The numbers clearly show the difference. Around 1 billion 4K TVs are being used in homes today, but only 1.6 million 8K TVs have been sold since 2015. Although 8K TV sales reached their highest point in 2022, they dropped sharply after that. The 8K Association was formed in 2019 by big brands like Samsung and TCL to promote 8K content. Today, the group has only 16 members, and just two of them still make TVs, showing how little interest there is in 8K now.
They cost too much for regular folks. No real 8K videos exist—many still watch 1080p on Netflix or YouTube. Even 4K content is rare. Gaming didn’t save it. Sony promised 8K on PS5 Pro but dropped it in 2024 because cables couldn’t handle it.
Our eyes may not even notice the difference between 8K and 4K. A tool from the University of Cambridge shows that you need to sit very close to see 8K clearly. For a 50-inch TV, you would have to sit about 3 feet away to notice any difference. Even with a very large 100-inch TV, you still need to sit only 6 to 10 feet away. This kind of distance is uncomfortable, especially for relaxed movie nights.
People want better colors and brightness instead. Think OLED, HDR, tiny Micro LED lights, or quantum dots. Samsung’s new Micro RGB shines brighter. You can still buy a Samsung 8K TV for $2,500 (65-inch). LG has some left. 8K might live on for VR goggles or pros, but not your living room.
