October NPD: Wii, DS dethrone Xbox 360

After the NPD group's short-lived hesitation in providing monthly US console sales data spawned many an unhappy emoticon, it comes as a great relief to present October's magnificent results. This is especially true considering that all platforms have ducked out of last month's Halo effect and returned to their familiar positions -- the Wii and DS are back on top and the PlayStation 3 is, well, you know.

GameDaily notes that the industry once again saw over $1 billion dollars leaving wallets at uncanny speeds, placing total sales for the year (through October) at $10.5 billion. At the same time last year, the amount had "just" reached $7 billion.

• Nintendo Wii: 519K (5 million total)
  

• Nintendo DS: 458K (13.6 million total)

• Microsoft Xbox 360: 366K (7.1 million total)

• Sony PSP: 286K (8.8 million total)

• Sony PlayStation 2: 184K (39.4 million total)
  

• Sony PlayStation 3: 121K (1.9 million total)

Halo 3 continued to top the software top 10 (US sales now total 3.7 million copies), followed by multiple versions of Activision's hugely successful strummer, Guitar Hero III: Somewhat Superfluous Subtitle. Unsurprisingly, the PS2 versions sold in the greatest numbers, followed by the Xbox 360 and Wii packages. And don't ask us about the whereabouts of the PS3 version. That question is better directed at fellow absentees, Ratchet & Clank.

1. Halo 3 (all three SKUs - Xbox 360) -- 433.8K

2. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock w/ guitar (Xbox 360) -- 383.2K
   

3. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock w/ guitar (Wii) -- 286.3K
   

4. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock w/ guitar (PS2) -- 271.1K

5. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS) -- 262.8K

6. Wii Play (Wii) -- 239.7K

7. The Orange Box (Xbox 360) -- 238.4K

8. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock standalone (PS2) -- 231.7K

9. FIFA Soccer '08 (PS2) -- 129.7K

10. Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day (DS) -- 116.9K