The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) is having a Blu – not blue – Christmas, according to sales figures it released recently.
The group reported Black Friday sales “were decidedly Blu” for both hardware and software, accounting for a total sell-in since launch of 2.7 million players in North American households as of Nov. 24.
Although the announcement did not break out sales by device type, the total count would include sales of Sony PlayStation 3 video game consoles that all include built-in Blu-ray Disc drives and dominate sales of all set-top Blu-ray players.
The HD DVD Promotion Group released sales figures last week showing total U.S. penetration of 750,000 HD DVD players to date, including sales of Xbox 360 video game consoles with add-on HD DVD drives.
The BDA cited Nielsen/VideoScan format share numbers showing HD disc software sales for the week of Black Friday were 72.6 percent compared to 27.4 percent for HD DVD.
Total sales of Blu-ray Disc movies in North America passed the 4 million mark in November, the BDA said, pointing out important milestones along the way including: reaching the 1 million mark in the first 10 months of release, reaching the 2 million mark three months after that and finally 4 million two months after that.
Comparatively, HD DVD reached 2.5 million disc sales in November, the BDA observed.
Other figures mentioned by the Blu-ray camp were the following:
- Year-to-date (through Nov. 25), Blu-ray movie titles have outsold HD DVD in the United States by a 2-to-1 margin.
- Of the top 20 high-definition titles in the United States this year, 18 are available on Blu-ray.
- Blu-ray movies have 73 percent of the European market — outselling HD-DVD by a 3-to-1 margin, according to sales data provided by Media Control Gfk International.
- Blu-ray’s share of the HD recorder market in Japan is now 95 percent as of the week ending Nov. 12, according to Media Control Gfk International.
