Blu-ray sales dramatically down

40% drop in sales of players as DVD is "good enough"

1 May 2008 11:22 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

NPD Group retail sales tracking data released this week show sales of Blu-ray standalone players have decreased drastically since the beginning of the year.

Standalone Blu-ray player unit sales in the States dropped a whopping 40% from January to February and saw just a 2% increase between February and March, according to NPD.

Unsurprisingly sales of the now obsolete HD DVD standalone players sales also dropped dramatically seeing a 65% decrease.

But these Blu-ray stats are being considered surprising by some who assumed now the format war has been won, consumers would feel happier to splash the cash on a next-gen player, the price of which averages out at $400 in the US.

NPD suggests that consumers are not making the leap to Blu-ray as DVD is "good enough" for most - in the same time period that Blu-ray sales dropped, upconverting DVD players sales have actually increased 5%.