By Kris Graft
Guitar Hero III captured four slots on the October US top 10 software sales charts, while Halo 3 managed big sales for another month.
ImageOverall US videogame sales for last month were $1.1 billion, up a very healthy 73 percent year-on-year and a further indication that the games industry is set to break another annual record.
Activision's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock led the way on a multi-platform basis, selling a cumulative 1.4 million units across all platforms, including software-only and guitar-bundled versions. It managed to capture four slots in the top ten: three with the guitar bundle and one for the standalone PS2 software.
"Guitar Hero has certainly established itself among the elite video games properties," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "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 six days. Since it has broad appeal, it's also the type of game that should continue to do very well throughout the holidays."
Purchases of Guitar Hero controllers drove accessory sales up 94 percent year-on year to $130 million.
Master Chief wasn't quite finished with the fight, as Halo 3 managed to sell 433,800 units in the first full month after its September launch, capturing the top spot in terms of single-platform software sales.
Overall software sales for the month were $513.9 million, up 39 percent year-on-year.
While Halo 3 helped push Xbox 360 past the dominant Nintendo Wii during September, this month the Wii and DS reclaimed the hardware throne with 519,000 and 458,000 units, respectively, capturing the top two slots.
Xbox 360 trailed in third place with 366,000 units sold (down from September's 528,000) and PlayStation 3 sold 121,000 (on par with September's 119,000). Meanwhile, PS2 sold 184,000 and PSP sold a respectable 286,000.
Hardware sales were $469.7 million, up 127 percent year-on-year.
"Remember that the PS3 price cut came in November so we'll have to wait until our data comes out next month to see the effect of that cut on retail sell-through of the hardware," reminded Frazier.
Earlier today, Sony CEO Howard Stringer said PS3 sales had increased 250-300 percent since the console adopted its new pricing strategy. A 40GB PS3 can be had for $400.
Overall year-to-date US videogame industry sales (software, hardware, accessories) stand at $10.5 billion, up 49 percent compared to last year.
Here are the top-selling games for the month and year-to-date, as provided by the NPD Group:
Top 10 SKUs for October, 2007
1. 360 Halo 3*, Microsoft--433.8K
2. 360 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock w/ guitar, Activision--383.2K
3. Wii Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock w/guitar, Activision--286.3K
4. PS2 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock w/guitar, Activision--271.1K
5. DS Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Nintendo--262.8K
6. Wii Play w/ Remote, Nintendo--239.7K
7. 360 Half-Life 2: The Orange Box, EA--238.4K
8. PS2 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock--231.7K
9. PS2 FIFA Soccer 08, EA--129.7K
10. DS: Brain Age 2, Nintendo--116.9K
*Includes Collector's & Legendary Editions
Year-to-date 2007
Halo 3--3.7M
Madden NFL 08--3.2M
Guitar Hero 2--2.8M
Wii Play W/ Remote--2.5M
Pokemon Diamond Version--2.1M
Pokemon Pearl Version--1.5M
Spider-Man 3--1.4M
Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock--1.4M
