Europe: Blu-ray Movie Titles Break One Million Mark

According to the Blu-ray Disc Association, the group’s preferred format recently reached the million-sold mark and represented more than 70 percent of all next-gen discs sold in Europe in the past year. About 27 percent, it said, represented HD DVD titles.

The BDA also said this week that industry figures indicate that when Blu-ray video games are added to the mix, the number of combined Blu-ray titles sold jumps to about 21 million. Since its initial launch, the PlayStation 3 console from chief Blu-ray proponent Sony has always included an internal Blu-ray drive (unlike Microsoft’s game product counterpart, the Xbox 360, which lacks an internal HD DVD drive).

According to the BDA, Blu-ray’s three top-selling movie titles in Europe (prior to the current holiday season) included “300,” “Spider-Man 3” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.”

HD DVD proponents, for their part, recently announced its format’s disc players (not titles) sold in the United States had just reached the 750,000 mark, prior to the holiday season.