November NPD: A new record, with Xbox 360 joined by MW3 and Skyrim on top (Update 2: Sony PR added)

(Update: Microsoft Chief of Interactive Entertainment Aaron Greenberg has released Xbox 360 sales via Twitter, which are included below.)

It's a little good, a little bad with this year's November 2011 NPD results. While "unit sales grew for console hardware, as well as console, portable, and PC software," NPD analyst Anita Frazier warns that "a decline in average retail price in all categories" besides portable hardware resulted in dollar sales that were flat compared to last November. That said, November 2011 "marks the best November on record for sales of new physical content," besting the previous record holder, November 2008.

Unsurprisingly, the Xbox 360 was the top selling piece of gear for the month and Frazier notes that the "gap between 360 sales and sales of the next best selling platform was the largest we've seen since December 2008 when the Nintendo DS was the top selling system." Microsoft Chief of Interactive Entertainment Aaron Greenberg later added via Twitter that the Xbox 360 sold 1.7 million consoles during the month of November, up 23% year over year. For the month, Nintendo announced it sold more than 860,000 Wii systems, more than 795,000 Nintendo 3DS systems and more than 350,000 Nintendo DS systems.

Meanwhile, Sony declined to provide specific sales numbers for the PS3. According to Sony PR chief Patrick Seybold, "PlayStation 3 is off to a phenomenal start to the holiday season, recording the best ever Black Friday sales period in the console's five-year history. According to the November NPD report the PS3 saw a 70% increase in hardware and a 30% increase in software year-over-year." The PS3 sold 530,000 units last year, which would situate PS3 sales for November 2011 in the neighborhood of 901,000 units.

In the software arena, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 took its perch at the top of the charts, besting Black Ops "by about 7%," while Skyrim managed "a five-fold increase over Oblivion's first month sales" coming in just a half-million units short of matching its predecessor's lifetime sales. Other newcomers include single SKU exclusives like Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception in seventh place and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword in ninth.

[Image source: onrpg.net]

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3, Wii, PC)

2. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (360, PS3, PC)

3. Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)

4. Assassin's Creed: Revelations (360, PS3, PC)

5. Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360)

6. Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2)

7. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (PS3)

8. Saints Row: The Third (360, PS3, PC)

9. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (WII)

10. Batman: Arkham City (360, PS3, PC)