Battlefield 3 came in at "just under" 2 million units across all platforms in the United States. That's not a terrible figure for a game released at a time where it had only five days to track in the month, but compared with today's news of rival Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 selling 6.5 million units in the U.S. and U.K. in a day, it doesn't sound quite so good. (Here's a preview of next month's NPDs: Call of Duty is number one.) It's important to note the numbers for Battlefield (or any other game) don't account for digital sales, of which there were likely many thanks to online-only deals and the perks being offered through Origin.
DICE's new shooter was followed by Batman: Arkham City with over 1.5 million units sold at retail between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions. (It won't be out on PC until later this month.) NBA 2K12 was the number three title despite the ongoing NBA lockout, and Rage was just behind that. Just Dance 3 (available only on Wii and 360 until the PS3 version comes out in December) was a strong seller and Dark Souls fans will be happy to see the niche title make it in at number six. Also of note was Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure -- it failed to make the top ten, instead making it to number 11 in new physical sales for the month.
Unlike the trend we've been seeing for months, almost all comparisons with last year were up -- new videogame hardware sales were up to $295.6 million from $279.9 million last October, combined console and portable software sales were up to $621.3 million from $604.8 million, and overall software sales (including PC) were up to $649.5 million from $643.9 million. The only area that was down was accessories from $142.4 million to $135.9 million.
"Accessory sales declined versus last October, but more so in dollars than in units due to a decline in average selling price," wrote NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "The accessory types that declined the most were Gamepads and Specialty Controllers."
As for the hardware side, Nintendo already shared its figures earlier today. Wii sold nearly 250,000 units during the month and the DS line did almost 180,000. 3DS sold over 250,000, enough to make it the second best-selling system during the month. That number brings its life-to-date sales in the United States up to 1.65 million units. At this rate, it will exceed first-year sales of the original DS in the U.S. by the time it reaches its one-year anniversary.
Xbox 360 was again the best-selling system during October; hardware sales were up 21 percent over last October. 393,000 units were sold, representing a 44 percent share of current-gen console sales during the month.
Sony has yet to issue a statement on today's numbers, although based on the 44 percent figure cited by Microsoft and the known sales of the 360 and Wii, PS3 sold in the neighborhood of 250,000 units during the month.
Update: Sony's NPD statement didn't offer up much; first- and third-party software sales are up five percent, and Infamous: Festival of Blood is the fastest-selling PS3 game ever launched on PSN, according to SCEA's senior director of corporate communications, Patrick Seybold.
The full software top ten list follows below.
- Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)**
- Batman: Arkham City (360, PS3)**
- NBA 2K12 (360, PS3, PSP, Wii, PS2, PC)
- Rage (360, PS3, PC)
- Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360)
- Dark Souls (PS3, 360)
- Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP)**
- Forza Motorsport 4 (360)**
- Gears of War 3 (360)**
- FIFA Soccer 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2, 3DS)**(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)
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