From DailyTech:
In a recent battle of press releases, the Blu-ray Association announced that sales of Blu-ray Disc titles have surpassed one million units in less than a year since the format’s introduction. In a statement from the HD DVD Promotional Group received by DailyTech, it appears that sales of HD DVD movies are not far behind those of Blu-ray Disc.
According to stats cited by the HD DVD Group, which are based on recent data from Nielsen Videoscan, Universal, Warner and Toshiba, HD DVD titles are now at 998,059 units sold, representing less-than 2,000 units shy of Blu-ray’s announced figures. Of course, while the next-generation formats fight over claims of collective sales of one million, a single DVD title could easily sell over one million units on its own.
“Yes, these are still small numbers compared to DVD sales, but point being – HD DVD is still very much in the game,” read the HD DVD Group statement. “As more HD DVD titles hit the market (take a look at pre-order rankings for Planet Earth and The Matrix Trilogy) and as prices for HD DVD hardware continue to drop below the $400 mark, we’re seeing more equal week to week movie sales ratios between the formats.”
The HD DVD Promotional Group announced last week that it has sold more than 100,000 standalone players in the U.S. since introduction, and claims to be currently outselling dedicated Blu-ray players by a four-to-one margin.
“Why are we just focusing on dedicated players? So we can compare stats on similar hardware with similar attach rates,” explained the HD DVD Group. “That’s a key driver of software sales and shows that price is clearly a factor for consumers in deciding to buy dedicated high definition hardware.”
“Bottom line is that HD DVD is staying focused across the board on creating great products at great prices,” the Group added.
– Source
It looks like HD-DVD still has a pretty good chance of winning the format war. But I am willing to bet that we will be stuck with two formats for a few years to come.