Following Sony’s big month in September, the newly released NPD Group data shows the PlayStation 3 has dropped from the top spot of hardware sales. With the price drop, Sony pushed 491,800 PS3s in September, resulting in an astounding 134% increase. In October, Sony came in third place with 320,600 PS3s sold.
The Wii, with its late September price drop, was the only console to sustain an upward movement with some 506,900 units sold in October. The Xbox 360 sold 249,700 units, while the PSP sold 174.600.
Here’s the official hardware breakdown:
* Wii – 506,900
* Nintendo DS – 457,600
* PlayStation 3 – 320,600
* Xbox 360 – 249,700
* PSP – 174,600
* PlayStation 2 – 117,800
Hardware sales in the US were down some 23% compared to October 2008 with overall video game sales down 19% from last year at this time. There is good news, however.
NPD analyst Anita Frazier said, “The video games industry suffered another decline this month as compared to last October. This is the third best October on record, behind October 2007 and October 2008.”