Earlier this month, economic experts were already predicting September's sales of video games.  Today NPD released some solid numbers, painting an overall positive picture of the gaming industry, at least in North America.  Looks like those predictions were actually right, as we see Halo 3: ODST and Sony's PlayStation 3 take the lead in software and hardware sales, respectively. 

The entire industry as a whole enjoyed a 1 percent year-on-year growth, with combined increase of $1.28 billion.  Of that amount, 6 percent was hardware, 5 percent attributed to software, and 2 percent consisted of accessory sales.

The Blu-Ray console has been topping charts since its rumored and greatly-anticipated price cut, giving the big black machine a hefty boost.  In September, the PS3 sold 491.8k or 491,800 units, just shy of 500k.  The Wii was behind by only 20k units or so, and the Xbox 360 sat in third with 352.6k units.  Oh, but the PS3 fanboys still need to contend with handhelds, as the Nintendo DS beats all three major consoles with 524.2k units sold in September; that's sixth consecutive monthly "wins" in a row.  Sony's PSP and PSPgo dwell below 200k, selling 190.4k and 146k respectively.

Despite Sony's hardware victory, analysts are saying that the Xbox 360 made the biggest contribution to industry growth with sales in hardware, software, and accessories, which made up around 32 percent of the September revenues.  Oh, no doubt Halo 3: ODST helped; the Halo 3 prequel sold over 1.52 million copies between its release on the 22nd and the end of September.  Including ODST, five of the top 10 best-selling games last month are for Xbox 360.
 

September 2009 U.S. Top 10 SKUs

*Includes CE, GotY editions, bundles (excludes hardware bundles)