Halo 3, Guitar Hero III, Wii & DS Lead $1.1 Billion in Sales for October

November 15, 2007 | By: James Brightman

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The incredible year continues as October sales surpass $1 billion again. Guitar Hero III sold well over a million copies across platforms, Halo 3 and Xbox 360 performed well again, and Wii topped hardware.

The NPD Group's October video game sales data has arrived, and incredibly, following an outstanding September, total industry sales have once again surpassed one billion dollars. The exact total came in at $1.1 billion, which represents a 73 percent jump year-over-year.

Hardware in particular was up 127 percent to $469.7 million, with console hardware rising 195 percent to $349.6 million. Portable hardware was up 36 percent to $120.1 million. Total software sales climbed 39 percent $513.9 million, as console software rose 45 percent to $412.5 million. Portable software rose 19 percent to $101.5 million. Accessories also saw a 94 percent surge to $130 million.

All told, the video game industry in the U.S. now stands at $10.5 billion through October. To put that in perspective, last year at this time, the total was $7.0 billion, so the industry is tracking ahead by 49 percent and will undoubtedly set a new high watermark.

Looking more closely at the data, while Halo 3 easily dominated September when it launched, in October Master Chief still managed to retain his crown. The game sold through 433.8K units, leading to an additional 366K sales for Xbox 360 hardware.

The Wii took top hardware honors, however, selling 519K units. The DS wasn't far behind with 458K units. The PS3, not yet boosted by the price cut, sold just 121K. Sony's other platforms, the PSP and PS2, sold 286K and 184K units, respectively.

Beyond Halo 3, other top sellers included Activision's Guitar Hero III (although the PS3 version didn't crack the top 10), Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Wii Play and Valve's Orange Box.

The complete top 10 list and some "fast facts" are provided below.

Top 10 for October (ranked in unit sales)