The war between Blu-ray and HD DVD formats continues with the lead in the US growing between the two titles, with Blu-ray now shipping 4.5 disks for every one that the HD DVD format ships.
In one of its weekly bulletins Sony Pictures claimed that weekly Blu-ray sales climbed 74.4% compared to the previous week to 65,630 units while HD-DVD sales fell 14.1% to 14,684 units over the same period.
US research company Home Media Research said that the Blu-ray format has now passed a million disks, and accounted for 70% of the high-definition movies sold in the first quarter of 2007.
Sony Pictures revealed that Blu-ray content year to date sales are 549,730 units, with total cumulative sales at just over 844,000 units while year to date sales of HD-DVD are 249,451 units, and cumulative sales stand at 708,600 units with Warner Brothers making up 47% plus of the HD DVD market with Universal shipping 38%. It looks now like the pressure is on for these two to give up on the HD DV market, a move which would cave in the US effort for HD DVD.
Outside the US Blu-ray appears to be winning by an even grater margin, with Sony saying that in Japan Blu-ray ships more than 90% of HD DVD disks.