October NPD: Uncharted 2 takes top spot while hardware sales slow down

After the last twomonths of price drop-fueled sales surges, it's almost comforting to see all these red arrows. Hardware sales are down 17% from last month and down 10% from the year prior, with only the Wii maintaining any upward momentum as we head into the two busiest shopping months of the year. The PS3 lost the highest percentage, but that's hardly surprising following last month's meteoric 134% spike in sales.

On the software side of things, the exceptionally well-received PlayStation 3-exclusive Uncharted 2: Among Thieves took top honors, selling 537K units in just the second half of October. Of course, Sony told us earlier today that the title has broken the coveted million mark (worldwide?) with November sales factored in. The multiplatform Borderlands makes a similarly impressive showing, taking third on Xbox 360 with 418K units sold; however, when you factor in the 113K units sold of the not-top-ten PS3 version (data provided graciously by NPD), you find an impressive 531K in cumulative sales, just missing the top spot.

NBA 2K10 had a strong showing with 524K in cumulative sales, "outselling last year's NBA 2K9 by 60% in its launch month" reports the NPD, while last month's champ, Halo 3: ODST, dropped to sixth with 271K in sales. With just four days on shelves in October, Forza Motorsport 3 made a strong showing at #8 with 175K. Slightly less strong was Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days' ninth-place showing despite a full month on the shelf. And in last place is the worldwide phenomenon known as FIFA 10 (or, in North America, FIFA Soccer 10). While FIFA 10 may be the "fastest selling sports game ever" in Europe, selling 1.7m in its first week, over here we bought up just 156K copies in a little over a week.

-Wii: 507K

44K (+10%)
-DS: 458K

66K (-13%)
-PS3: 321K

171K (-35%)
-360: 250K

103K (-29%)
-PSP: 175K

15K (-8%)
-PS2: 118K

28K (-19%)

Check out the software sales chart after the break.

1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - PS3 - Sony - 537K

2. Wii Fit Plus - Wii - Nintendo - 441K

3. Borderlands - 360 - Take 2 - 418K

4. Wii Sports Resort - Wii - Nintendo - 314K

5. NBA 2K10 - 360 - Take 2 - 311K

6. Halo 3: ODST - 360 - Microsoft - 271K

7. NBA 2K10 - PS3 - Take 2 - 213K

8. Forza Motorsport 3 - 360 - Microsoft - 175K

9. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days - DS - Square Enix - 169K

10. FIFA Soccer 10 - 360 - EA - 156K