Numbers just released by web metrics site compete.com show that more Netflix users make HD DVD their format of preference when given the choice.

During the summer months of June, July and August, Netflix averaged 14 million visitors per month. The overall percentage of those visitors viewing Blu Ray and HD DVD titles amounts to less than one percent, averaging about 50,000 visitors a month who bothered to set their format preference. Of that number, Blu Ray averaged 10 percent, or 5000 visitors a month who chose Blu Ray as their format preference. HD DVD averaged just under 19,000 visitors a month, 12,000 of whom selected HD DVD as their preferred disc format. In other words, of the people viewing the HD DVD genre on Netflix, 63% converted their format preference to HD DVD, compared to Blu Ray's 10% conversion. In all honesty this sort of thing can't be given too much weight. All the numbers measured were the total Netflix visits, how many of them viewed the Blu Ray and HD DVD genres, and how many of those converted their preferences to that format.

It's not the end of the Format War by any stretch. It does show loyalty, and certainly HD DVD owners appear to have been won over by their format, while the numbers are less inspiring for Blu Ray. Blu Ray sales have been flat, and HD DVD has had a good month following the Paramount/Dreamworks announcement.

I do think that these numbers show the Playstation 3 effect: Lots of Blu Ray players out there that people bought without Blu Ray being their primary motivation. Perhaps the fickleness of that considerable percentage of Blu Ray owners is beginning to show.