While the next generation format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD is far from over, Home Media Research is bringing us a quick update on the subject. According to the research firm, Blu-ray titles outsold competing HD DVD titles by nearly two-to-one in the United States during the first nine months of 2007, with a total of 3.01 million Blu-ray discs sold compared to HD DVD's 1.97 million.
Those numbers doesn't include sales of the recently released HD DVD-exclusive Transformers, which had the biggest debut of any high-definition titles, selling 190,000 copies in its first week alone - a figure which will probably continue to rise.
The report is not good news for either format, though. Both Blu-ray and HD DVD showed significant growth between Q1 and Q2, but slipped by big margins between Q2 and Q3. However, as we move towards the holiday buying season both formats are likely to see a boost in sales. Some analysts believe that newly released HD DVD titles with new advanced Web-enabled features along with HD DVD players selling at all-time low prices should invigorate sales and cause HD DVD to finish the year strong. Meanwhile, standalone Blu-ray players remain more expensive than HD DVD, but more are coming to market including a new $399 version of the PlayStation 3 console, which happens to be Sony's best-selling Blu-ray player.