HD DVD tops US list of high-def sales last week

Hollywood (CA) - While Blu-ray has pretty much officially won the high definition media war, the HD DVD release of American Gangster beat out all of its Blu-ray contenders in the last full week of February.

According to Nielsen VideoScan, the Denzel Washington thriller outsold the next title on the list, "Michael Clayton" on Blu-ray, by a margin of nearly two-to-one during the week ended February 23.

It will likely be the last time HD DVD appears anywhere on the top five. Of course, during the same week all other nine of the top 10 high-def disc sellers were Blu-ray titles. Additionally, Blu-ray took a reported 77% of all high-def sales, a new record.

The week in question was the same week that both Toshiba and Universal, founding members of the HD DVD alliance, announced plans to suspend support for the format.