When Will 8K Finally Matter?

Spoiler: Not yet—but maybe sooner than you think.

We’ve covered this topic and don’t have much hope for 8K TVs, but there’s some potential. Let’s take a look at the 8K TV issue from a different perspective. If you’ve wandered through a Best Buy lately, you’ve probably seen them—massive 8K TVs showing perfectly lit demo footage of rainforests and race cars. The colors are surreal. The sharpness is unnatural. And the price tag? Still enough to make you pause and ask: who is this for?

The short answer: not you. Not yet.

The 8K Paradox

8K resolution is undeniably impressive—four times as many pixels as 4K, and 16 times as many as 1080p. But there’s still a glaring problem: there’s nothing to watch. No streaming service regularly delivers native 8K. No broadcaster airs in 8K. Even next-gen consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X top out at 4K. So why does 8K even exist right now?

Because it’s ready—but the rest of the ecosystem isn’t.

What Needs to Happen First?

For 8K to matter, at least three things need to line up:

Content: Right now, you’re either watching upscaled 4K or compressed YouTube test reels. NHK in Japan has been broadcasting in 8K since 2018, but that’s the exception. Most production pipelines are still optimized for 4K—or even 1080p. Until major studios, sports leagues, and streaming platforms commit to 8K production, don’t expect much to change.
Infrastructure: An 8K stream demands massive bandwidth—about 100 Mbps for good quality. That rules out most home Wi-Fi setups, let alone rural broadband. Streaming platforms would need to rethink their compression and delivery models, and ISPs would need to stop pretending 35 Mbps is “fast.”
Hardware Standards: HDMI 2.1 is just now becoming standard in newer devices, and most people don’t own receivers or streaming boxes that can handle 8K. We’re in a weird half-step phase—TVs can display 8K, but very few devices can send it.

Check out: 8K TVs on Amazon

So… When?

Here’s the optimistic guess: late this decade.

ATSC 3.0 (aka “NextGen TV”) is slowly rolling out and could eventually support 8K broadcasts.
5G home internet might make high-bandwidth streaming more feasible.
A potential PS6 or Xbox next-next-gen might actually target 8K gaming.
And by then, your 8K TV might cost less than a vacation.

Until then, the reality is this: buying an 8K TV in 2025 is like buying a flying car when there are no roads in the sky. It’s cool. It’s futuristic. But you’re not going anywhere with it—yet.