October 2009 NPD Number Crunch: Wii, Uncharted 2 lead the way

The NPD Group has prepared its latest monthly report covering the North American video game industry sales for October 2009.  After the year's first month of year-on-year growth as a result of September 2009's sales, October 2009 unfortunately couldn't quite keep up the pace.  A 19 percent year-on-year decline in total industry revenue was reported, though October 2009's results still proved to be the third highest recorded by the NPD Group for the month.

October 2009 Industry Summary

Total: $1.07 billion USD
Console software: $572.73 million USD
Console hardware: $380.74 million USD
Console accessories: $118.88 million USD

Nintendo's Wii sees a return to form after being topped by the PlayStation 3 in September, and it's price cut to $199 USD certainly helped.  The competing PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms already saw their boost in sales thanks to similar reductions in price, though NPD's Anita Frazier notes that their momentum did not end up carrying over into October.

While 360 titles dominated both NPD's top ten as well as overall industry sales for October (making up 27 percent of total sales), Uncharted 2 for the PS3 emerged as the best-selling title of last month.  Many other new titles succeeded in landing in the software top ten as well, including Borderlands, Forza Motorsport 3, Wii Fit Plus, and NBA 2K10.  September's top-seller and key force behind the month's growth, Halo 3: ODST, unfortunately dropped in sales by quite a bit during October, though admittedly it's a tough act to recapture monthly sales of over one million units.

What will the NPD report bring for this month?  Titles to look for will definitely include Dragon Age: Origins and of course Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, already Activision's biggest game launch yet.