At Last: Absolute Blu-ray/HD DVD Sales Figures

[jed]

As has been discussed in other threads here, Sony released their Next Generation Disc Tracking Report late last week. I was surprised to see little coverage of the actual hard numbers revealed in the report, which is the focus of this story we've just posted:

Perhaps most interesting are the per-title sales numbers for the top ten selling discs across both formats, which are provided both in the form of a weekly tally (again for the week ending March 18), and as year-to-date totals.

While these charts confirm the previously reported strong showings for such A-list titles as 'The Departed' 'Batman Begins' and 'Superman Returns' (with each clocking per-format sales totals since-inception of at least 28,000 units sold), they also demonstrate a very steep drop-off for titles outside of that top rung, with even discs among the top-ten best sellers that week moving fewer than 1000 units a peice

Full story:
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/564

[half-sane]

good thing they reported the numbers right up to the week before HD DVD started having new releases again

[divian]

Originally Posted by half-sane

good thing they reported the numbers right up to the week before HD DVD started having new releases again

Do not even worried about it.
They are being presented by Sony.
They are showing us what they want us to see.
Pretty soon you will see Toshiba and Universal claiming that they have some other numbers and this willb e worst that the smackdown forum.

[jdobrole]

Actually the numbers come from Nielsen. They are the entertainment industry standard, it even says so in the article. Wow I couldn't believe the beating the departed took on HD. Quite amazing

[polyh3dron]

*waits for inevitable irrational spin from HD DVD fanboys*

[Fozziwig]

Originally Posted by jed

As has been discussed in other threads here, Sony released their Next Generation Disc Tracking Report late last week. I was surprised to see little coverage of the actual hard numbers revealed in the report, which is the focus of this story we've just posted:



Full story:
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/564

These are not absolute sales numbers they are partial sales numbers. This is a mistake many on these and other boads are making.

The Sony reported numbers are from the portion of the market covered by Nielsen. This could be anywhere from 40-60% of the true whole-market numbers. Among the retailers not covered are Wal*Mart who keep their sales secret. They account for a very large chunk of B&M sales and are also the second largest online retailer behind Amazon.

We are still waiting for 'absolute' numbers to be reported, but these partial numbers do give us a good guide to what the whole market is doing, so they are welcome.

The sales ratios as reported weekly by Nielsen will be very accurate because their sample size is huge. So, even though we don't know the exact volumes, it's clear which way the market is moving.

It is a little ironic that Sony put out a press release announcing big sales for Casino Royale and then released this report that showed not so good sales for CR. The reason is that the first report was based on Sony's whole-market activity and the second is based on what Nielsen report back from part of the market.

If I were to guess I would say you could take all the numbers in Sony's report and double them. That would get you closer to the absolute numbers, but it's still just a guess.

[Merlins]

Originally Posted by jed

As has been discussed in other threads here, Sony released their Next Generation Disc Tracking Report late last week. I was surprised to see little coverage of the actual hard numbers revealed in the report, which is the focus of this story we've just posted:



Full story:
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/564

Small error in the article:

by shipping 100,00 units to retail

Should be 100,000 units

[BlueAndRed]

I was nearly shocked when I saw the low numbers per disc sold in the top ten.
You ahould close this forum, because we are talking about: NOTHING.
Even if its double these numbers, we are talking about nearly nothing.-
What these numbers really show is that the format war has not even yet begun.
Lets wait until end of 2007 at least. Meanwhile I'll watch all of those pretty movies on Blu-Ray and HD-DVD and don't worry one second about who will win.

Well, the numbers are a joke!

[roscoe1972]

HD DVD had many fewer releases during the time period. So of course Blu-Ray sold more as there were more titles available.

I know the figures are partial, but I'm also surprised by the low total numbers for both formats.

[tranzparentl]

Those numbers actually look a lot better for HD DVD than the BDA would've had us believe.

Supposedly the war is already over and Blu-ray won right?

That's why the top 4 spots are 2 Blu-ray and 2 HD DVD right?

Plus of course they picked the week to release numbers for when Blu-ray had their biggest release ever.

At least I'm glad to see Warner cleaning up on both sides of the war with Fox and Disney only 1 title in the top 10 each.

It's gotta be frustrating for the other BD exclusives when all the sales are going to Sony and Warner.

[lovswr]

Originally Posted by BlueAndRed

I was nearly shocked when I saw the low numbers per disc sold in the top ten.
You ahould close this forum, because we are talking about: NOTHING.
Even if its double these numbers, we are talking about nearly nothing.-
What these numbers really show is that the format war has not even yet begun.
Lets wait until end of 2007 at least. Meanwhile I'll watch all of those pretty movies on Blu-Ray and HD-DVD and don't worry one second about who will win.

Well, the numbers are a joke!

This is the 800lb pound Gorrila in the Room! PS3 sales, cheap Chinese players mean notthing. With low numbers like these, no studio is going to switch ever. I mean, in the big picture (pun intended), this incredibly low revenue would not even be a rounding error a major studio.

So like BlueandRed said, lets sit back, & just enjoy that we are even able to get the High-Def that we do now, because literally, the future can do nothing but get better.

[Philnerd]

Their "comprehensive" upcoming releases list is wrong. Seems they omitted the HD DVD releases of "The Road Warrior" and "Dream Girls". Those are just two titles I noticed without even trying to find ommissions. Its those little tidbits they throw in, ommit, or "forget" that I find very interesting. If its not slanted enough in their favor, they just doctor it up to help it look better.

Oh, just noticed that The Matrix Trilogy on HD DVD is also not present on the "comprehensive" list. Nice.

[zombieflanders]

Originally Posted by divian

Do not even worried about it.
They are being presented by Sony.
They are showing us what they want us to see.
Pretty soon you will see Toshiba and Universal claiming that they have some other numbers and this willb e worst that the smackdown forum.

Actually, the PDF carries the logo of Nielsen, which means they were used with their express permission. To do otherwise opens them up to severe legal action. So, considering that Nielsen has not filed suit, or indeed said anything, the numbers themselves carry the same weight as they would had they been released independently. Oh, and by the way, the "Phase Hydra" hacker was lying, so that's one more conspiracy theory you don't have to fall back on.

See, thinking logically can be fun!

[Fozziwig]

Originally Posted by BlueAndRed

I was nearly shocked when I saw the low numbers per disc sold in the top ten.
You ahould close this forum, because we are talking about: NOTHING.
Even if its double these numbers, we are talking about nearly nothing.-
What these numbers really show is that the format war has not even yet begun.
Lets wait until end of 2007 at least. Meanwhile I'll watch all of those pretty movies on Blu-Ray and HD-DVD and don't worry one second about who will win.

Well, the numbers are a joke!

OK, if the numbers are a joke then the onus is now on you to explain what numbers would be good for the first year of a new home video format. How many movies should have been sold by the HD DVD camp? There are close to 300,000 players out there apparently.

Naturally you will want to post some numbers of early DVD sales from 1997 & 1998 so we can see how well they did in comparison to HD DVD/Blu-ray.

I look forward to seeing your analysis.

Or is this just more 'Black Knight' fantasy from the HD DVD camp? I suspect it is.

[Picard]

While we should note that the VideoScan numbers are not all-inclusive (for example, they don't include discs sold at Wal-Mart or some online merchants), the lower sales numbers at the bottom end of weekly list and on display elsewhere in the report (where some titles are listed as selling fewer than 200 units since inception) are certainly still a sobering reminder that both formats still have a long way to go in their shared quest to supplant standard-def DVD.

then, VideoScan is "partially" unreliable ?