Why did VHS win out over Beta format?

Answer 1

Because VHS released the rights to duplicate its products, more people had the stuff, everyone wanted to exchange their videos (like porn), so the most common won the battle.

Answer

VHS was licensed to many different brands. Many competing brands had to lower the price to be competitive. Beta was only in the Sony brand and did not lower the price to properly compete in the consumer market, even though they had a demonstrably superior product.

Video rentals drove the consumer industry. There were more VHS units in the hands of consumers, therefore the distributors of video released their products in the VHS format more than Beta. Eventually Sony conceded the consumer market to VHS. For many years Beta dominated the professional broadcast market because of their vastly better picture.