August NPD: PS3 sales soar as gamers go batty for Arkham Asylum in a Madden world

This year's August NPD sales numbers were, as usual, dominated by EA's monolithic Madden franchise -- but who's that creeping out of the shadows? "I'm Batman."

Rocksteady, Warner Bros. and Eidos officially have themselves a critical and commercial hit in Batman: Arkham Asylum, with the game having sold more than half a million copies across PS3 and 360 in its first week on sale. Even the Joker can't laugh at sales like that.

Hardware saw a slight increase for the month, with the exception of PS3, which saw an impressive 72% jump in sales, no doubt due to early sales of the lower-priced 120GB slim SKU. Wii is still the best-selling home console, but its numbers are gradually dipping down into "maybe we should consider a price cut, too" territory. Here's how sales of the stuff we play are games on stacked up:

-DS: 553K

14K (+2%)
-Wii: 277K

24K (+9%)
-360: 215K

12K (+6%)
-PS3: 210K

88K (+72%)
-PSP: 140K

17K (+13%)
-PS2: 106K

2K (-2%

Check out the software sales chart after the break.

1. Madden NFL 10 - 360 - EA - 928K

2. Wii Sports Resort (w/ Wii Motion Plus) - Wii - Nintendo - 754K

3. Madden NFL 10 - PS3 - EA - 665K

4. Batman: Arkham Asylum* - 360 - Eidos - 303K

5. Batman: Arkham Asylum* - PS3 - Eidos - 290K

6. Madden NFL 10 - PS2 - EA - 160K

7. Dissidia: Final Fantasy - PSP - Square Enix - 130K

8. Wii Fit (w/ Balance Board) - Wii - Nintendo - 128K

9. Mario Kart (w/ Wheel) - Wii - Nintendo - 120K

10. Fossil Fighters - DS - Nintendo - 92K

* Includes Collector's, Limited and Bundled Editions