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Battlefield 3, Batman Lead October U.S. Sales

by Jim Reilly on Nov 11, 2011 at 11:31 AM

Total U.S. game sales hit $1.08 billion for the month of October, according to new data released by retail tracking firm NPD. This represents a one percent increase in sales versus last October.

Xbox 360 came out on top for the month on the hardware side, seeing year-over-year sales increase by 20 percent. “On an average sales per week basis, October 2011 unit sales of 3DS, DS, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360 platforms all saw an increase over September 2011, which was a 5-week retail month (Oct '11 was a four-week retail month)," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

Below are the known hardware sales for the U.S. in October released by publishers so far:

Xbox 360 - 393,000
PS3 - 250,000 (unconfirmed estimate)
Wii - Nearly 250,000
3DS - More than 250,000
NDS - Nearly 180,000

For software, Battlefield 3 and Batman: Arkham City took the top spots for the month. NPD says Battlefield 3 sold just under 2 million units while Batman came in with with over 1.5 million units. Bethesda's long-in-development shooter Rage sold 550,000 units across three platforms in its debut month.

"New software releases performed very well this month," Frazier added. "Seven of the top 10 titles were new October releases, and the top 10 titles sold 23% more units than did the top 10 last October.

"Between Uncharted 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, and Zelda: Skyward Sword, I expect November to be a huge month for new physical retail sales.”

Below is the top 10 physical software sales result in the U.S. for October:

  1. Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)**
  2. Batman: Arkham City (360, PS3)**
  3. NBA 2K12 (360, PS3, PSP, Wii, PS2, PC)
  4. Rage (360, PS3, PC)
  5. Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360)
  6. Dark Souls (PS3, 360)**
  7. Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP)**
  8. Forza Motorsport 4 (360)**
  9. Gears of War 3 (360)**
  10. FIFA Soccer 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2, 3DS)

**(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)

[Note - Wii sales were 250K, not 225K. Story has been corrected.)