According to figures released by Nielsen VideoScan to Home Media Magazine, Blu-ray movies are quickly gaining ground on HD DVD. The sales numbers show that Blu-ray Discs have been outselling HD DVDs by a strong margin thus far in 2007.

During the first week of 2007, sales of Blu-ray more than doubled that of HD DVDs, with the latter making up only 46.14 percent of sales compared to the former. Blu-ray pulled even further ahead the next week, leaving HD DVD behind at only 38.36 percent of Blu-ray’s numbers. To clarify, that means that, from January 1 to January 14, for every 100 Blu-ray Discs that were sold, only 38.36 HD DVDs were sold – meaning that Blu-ray has been outselling HD DVD by nearly a three to one margin.

The most obvious reason - the launch of the PlayStation 3, which rapidly injected the Blu-ray Disc movie market with at least 687,300 players. In contrast, HD DVD backers announced at CES 2007 that some 175,000 HD DVD players were sold in the U.S. since the format’s introduction. The sales numbers of PlayStation 3 alone put Blu-ray players way ahead of HD DVD machines, which is likely a part of Sony’s strategy for its format.