rewrite this title This ‘Bingebuster’ Website Recreates a Virtual Blockbuster to Browse | FirstShowing.net

This ‘Bingebuster’ Website Recreates a Virtual Blockbuster to Browse

by Alex Billington August 7, 2026

Time to step into the past! 📼 Venture back into the ol’ Blockbuster video store and choose your movie to watch tonight. A brand new website called “Bingebuster” has launched as a fun virtual experience. Instead of just recreating the Blockbuster video experience digitally, they went a step further and actually made this a functional experience. The website syncs with various streaming services (Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max, Disney+, Apple TV, Tubi, ITVX) to display actual movies that are available to watch directly on the online shelves as if you were browsing & choosing there. I remember doing this! The whole point is to recreate that nostalgic, lost-in-time experience of driving down to the nearest Blockbuster (or Hollywood Video or a local rental shop) Friday night and browsing the shelves and deciding then what to watch that night. This might really help with the streaming choice overload that so many people feel. It’s organized just like Blockbuster – by genre along with new releases. You can even re-sort and filter as well. This is also made by the same guys who created the virtual Criterion Closet collection website called The Closet (check it out too). More below.

It’s pretty easy to navigate and use – click any image below to head to Bingebuster and browse their shelves.

Thanks to Dexerto for the tip on this site. I’ve gotta say this is the most authentic version of this concept yet. Blockbuster Video originally launched in 1985 as a brick-&-mortar video rental store (some people loved it / some people hated it), taking over the world with a grand total of 9,094 stores during its peak in 2004. For those that missed that era, this is really what it looked like. The stores closed in 2014 after the rental concept died out and everything moved online. This “Bingebuster” is a virtual recreation of the store and the shelves, but this time it’s stocked with streaming movies to watch instead. There is also a search feature, a bookmark list feature, and the ability to customize the “stock” on the selves by streaming service & access in your country. Another similar version of a virtual Blockbuster is launching as a video game soon – called the “Virtual Video Store”. Bingebuster is a vintage video store experience created & developed by the brothers Oliver & Patrick Evans (tip them here). It’s currently free and available to access online from anywhere. Just browsing around, it actually does feel like a much easier & more intuitive way to pick a movie to watch tonight (or tomorrow or anytime). But maybe that’s because I still miss those old Blockbuster stores myself.

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