Data from Nielsen indicates that sales of Blu-ray media for the first time has outpaced that of HD DVD; however, as expected, both camps in the high-definition format war have different ways of interpreting the data.
For the week of February 18, Blu-ray sold 100 units for every 98.71 units of HD DVD. That culminates a several week period where sales of the disc format began to catch up to HD DVD after nearly a year of slow sales.
Analysts credit the launch of the PlayStation 3, which includes a Blu-ray drive, as helping to boost sales. The resurgent format also seems to have a five-to-one advantage over HD DVD in actual player sales.However, this is where supporters of HD DVD step in to defend their own format.
"Given that the life to date title sales ratios are close to 1:1, and given that Blu-ray has a 5:1 ratio right now on the hardware side due to the PS3, it poses an interesting question for the Blu-ray studios of why Blu-ray software sales are not outpacing HD DVD by a similar ratio?" Universal"s HD DVD chief Ken Graffeo told BetaNews.