HDTVs and DVD players       

HDTV sales rose to 20.7 million units in 2007, bringing the total installed base to 46.4 million in the U.S. (34% of households). The EMA noted that only 44% of those who own a HDTV actually watch HD programming and 22% believe to watch HD programming, while they in fact do not. The HDTV installed base is still well behind the total installed base of TVs, which was 112.4 million at the end of 2007.

Over the course of the year, 33 million DVD players were sold, bringing the total to 87.3 million console DVD players in the U.S. in 2007. There were also 48.5 million PC DVD players, 29.5 million DVD players in video game systems, 27.2 million portable DVD players and 25.2 million DVRs.  60% of DVD owners are estimated to have more than one DVD player. Almost 4.5 million HD players were sold in 2006 and 2007 in the U.S.

The PS3 is widely believed to remain the primary driver behind Blu-ray sales, as 87% of PS3 owners said they watch Blu-ray movies on their console. The fact that Microsoft decided not to integrate a HD DVD drive into the Xbox 360, may have sealed the format’s fate: The EMA said that Microsoft sold 316,000 HD DVD add-ons for the Xbox 360, which is marginal when compared to U.S. PS3 sales, which were close to 3 million by the end at 2007.

The EMA believes that the PS3 will remain the main force behind Blu-ray disc sales until 2009, when standalone Blu-ray players are expected to outpace the sales volume of the PS3. Market research indicates that 100 – 130 million homes worldwide will own at least one Blu-ray player by 2012.

Annual sales of all Blu-ray devices are expected to reach 57.4 million units by that time. The largest market will be Europe with 26.4 million, followed by the U.S. with 22.6 million and Japan with 8.4 million, according to the EMA.


Video games

The 2007 video game software market brought in $17.94 billion in console software sales as well as $910.7 million in PC game sales worldwide. Overall, 268 million game boxes were purchased by video gamers in 2007.

The most successful games of the year were Halo 3 (Xbox 360), which sold 4.8 million units, followed by Wii Play (Wii) with 4.1 million and Call of Duty 4 (Xbox 360) with 3.0 million. The PS3 had no title in the top 10 of the year.  

It is interesting to note that he average gamer is much older than most may think – 33 years. The EMA said that 48% of gamers are 18-49 years of age, 28% 18 years or younger and 24% are older than 50.

In terms of an installed base, Sony’s PS2 remained the most popular game platform in the U.S. with an estimated 41.12 million units being actively used. Nintendo’s DS follows with 17.65 million units, the PSP with 10.47 million, the Xbox 360 with 9.15 million, the Wii with 7.36 million and the PS3 with 3.25 million.

The EMA said that Nintendo accounted for 52% of all video game hardware systems sold in the U.S. in 2007 (8.5 million DS handhelds and 6.23 million Wiis). Microsoft sold 4.62 million Xbox 360s and Sony sold 2.56 million Playstation 3s, 3.97 million Playstation 2s and 3.82 million PSPs.

For 2007, overall hardware sales totaled $7.04 billion, which represented a 54% increase over 2006. The driving force was console hardware sales which were up 73% to $5.12 billion for the year.

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