Nintendo, Football Rock July NPD Chart

But did the PlayStation 3 really outsell the Xbox 360 this month? Find out.

July is supposed to be when things start to cool down for the games industry, as students and holiday makers take time off from games over the summer and spend their breaks doing other things. But not this year.

The latest figures from the US from NPD Group, reported by GameDaily, have the games industry racking up nearly 40 per cent more sales in July compared with last year. And Nintendo is the one to thank.

The Wii and the DS are proving nearly unstoppable, as the pair topped the chart yet again. This time the Wii even managed to outpace its portable housemate, selling 425,000 units compared to 405,000 units for the DS.

If you believed analyst speculation coming into the data report, the PlayStation 3 had at last broken free of the Xbox 360. That turned out not to be the case as Microsoft's console again outsold the PS3, despite a price cut for the latter.

The top game in the US in July was the Xbox 360 version of NCAA Football 08, the latest instalment in the college football series. The PS2 and PS3 versions also made the Top 10.

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Another triple-placer was Guitar Hero. Guitar Hero Encore Rocks The 80s was No. 2 for the month while the PS2 and Xbox 360 versions of Guitar Hero II lined the bottom of the chart in the 9th and 10th spots.

Below are the full hardware and software rankings for the US in July:

Software

  1. NCAA Football 08 (360) - 397,000
  2. Guitar Hero Encore Rocks The 80s (PS2) - 339,000
  3. Wii Play with remote (Wii) - 278,000
  4. NCAA Football 08 (PS2) - 236,000
  5. Mario Party 8 (Wii) - 177,000
  6. NCAA Football 08 (PS3) - 156,000
  7. Pokémon Diamond (DS) - 144,000
  8. Transformers: The Game (PS2) - 143,000
  9. Guitar Hero II with guitar (PS2) - 138,000
  10. Guitar Hero II with guitar (360) - 108,000

Hardware

  1. Wii - 425,000
  2. DS - 405,000
  3. PlayStation 2 - 222,000
  4. PSP - 214,000
  5. Xbox 360 - 170,000
  6. PlayStation 3 - 159,000
  7. Game Body Advance - 87,000

    8. Alex Wollenschlaeger
    Editor, Kikizo