Blu-ray Disc Movie Titles Outsold HD DVD by Nearly 2-to-1 in the United States and Nearly 3-to-1 in Europe During 2007; Blu-ray Totally Dominates Japanese Market

Blu-ray Disc movie titles outsold HD DVD in the United States by a nearly 2-to-1 margin last year, according to sales figures from Home Media Research, an independent market research firm.

Blu-ray titles outsold HD DVD in the United States every single week of the year, according to HMR. And Blu-ray editions of titles released on both formats consistently outsold their HD DVD counterparts by significant margins. Sales of the Blu-ray edition of “300,” the bestselling high-definition title to date, have outpaced sales of the HD DVD version by 2-to-1.

According to the European based market research firm, GfK media control – OCC, high-definition movie title sales in Europe were nearly 3-to-1 in favor of Blu-ray. And in Japan the margin was an overwhelming 14-to-1.

Sales of high-definition playback devices were even stronger in Blu-ray’s favor – more than 3 -to-1 in the United States, 10-to-1 in Europe and more than 100-to-1 in Japan.

The strong consumer preference for Blu-ray was cited by Warner Bros. as the principle reason for their January 4th decision to publish solely on Blu-ray Disc beginning in May of 2008.

The Blu-ray Disc Association released the sales figures for high-definition movie titles and playback devices during a news conference at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

Other Blu-ray highlights for 2007:

• Total US sales of Blu-ray movie titles topped six million in December, 2007. It took 10 months for Blu-ray sales to top one million, just over three months to reach the second million, under three months to reach the third million, just over two months to reach the fourth million, and one month to go from four to six million. Despite a significant head start in the market, HD DVD didn’t reach the 2.5 million mark until the middle of November and has yet to reach four million.
• Worldwide, eighty-five percent of all hardware sold that is capable of playing high-definition discs plays Blu-ray.
• Sixty-seven percent of all high-definition titles sold worldwide in 2007 were sold on Blu-ray.
• Seventeen of the top 20 selling high-definition titles in the United States are available on Blu-ray.
• In November, despite the $99 HD DVD player fire sale, Blu-ray accounted for nearly 70 percent of all high-definition disc sales in the United States. During the final week of November – including Black Friday – Blu-ray accounted for 72 percent of all high-definition disc sales.

The most recent data from SCA indicates that the total number of Blu-ray capable playback devices in the United states grew from 2.7 million at the end of November, to 3.7 million through the end of December.