NPD: October Video Game Sales Report
Bungie’s Halo 3 was once again master chief of the sales charts, despite a 92% drop in sales from its 3.3 million seller debut in September. Activision and Red Octane’s Guitar Hero III also had a good month, pushing 1.4 million units across multiple platforms. While the lead platform goes to the Xbox 360 this month in individual SKU terms, with the Wii version far behind, over 500,000 copies of the PlayStation 2 version were sold last month, across the standalone and guitar bundled editions.
The top ten games sold in the U.S. for the month of October are below,
01. Halo 3 (Xbox 360) – 433,800
02. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock w/ guitar (Xbox 360) – 383,200
03. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock w/ guitar (Wii) – 286,300
04. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock w/ guitar (PS2) – 271,100
05. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS) – 262,800
06. Wii Play (Wii) – 239,700
07. The Orange Box (Xbox 360) – 238,400
08. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS2) -231,700
09. FIFA Soccer 08 (PS2) – 129,700
10. Brain Age 2: More Training In Minutes A Day (DS) – 116,900
Total video game software sales checked in at $513.9 million, up 39% from the previous October’s at $369.3 million. Of that $513.9 million, $412.5 million was spent on console software, with $101.5 million dedicated to portable game software. Both are also up from the previous October.
Anita Frazier, analyst at the NPD, commented on Guitar Hero III’s sales, saying “Very few games sell in excess of 1 million units in their first month in market, but Guitar Hero III did easily with combined sales of 1.4 million units in only 6 days. Since it has broad appeal, it’s also the type of game that should continue to do very well throughout the holidays.”
Guess that means a sequel is likely.
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