Guitar Hero III Dominates October NPDs

But Halo 3 is still the game at the top of the chart.

Anyone still doubting the rise of music games in recent months need only look at this month's sales figures from the US and the success of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

Despite being on sale there for less than a week during the counting period, Activision's high-profile rocker sold more than 1.4 million copies, according to numbers from research firm NPD Group reported by Wired.

The numbers will come as good news to the publisher, which bought the series from RedOctane after Guitar Hero II came out. Original developer Harmonix did not work on Guitar Hero III, choosing instead to work on EA's rival game Rock Band, which is out in the US this month.

Despite all that consumer attention, though, no single version of Guitar Hero III sold enough to beat out Halo 3, which is on top of the charts for a second month, although way down from the 3.3 million units sold in September.

With Halo 3 now out, things have settled back into their regular rhythm on the hardware side of things. The Wii is still king in the US, selling more than half a million units in October. The DS was next, spurred on by the good showing of Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, which sold more than a quarter-million copies during the month.

As for the PlayStation 3, things are looking up, even if it's not reflected in the figures this month. Sony's console came last during October (although no Game Boy Advance numbers were reported), but the recent price cut and the introduction of the cheaper model of the PS3 has doubled sales of the system, Reuters reports.

The hardware and software charts for October are below:

Hardware

1. Halo 3 (Xbox 360) 433,800
2. Guitar Hero III with Guitar (Xbox 360) 383,200
3. Guitar Hero III with Guitar (Wii) 286,300
4. Guitar Hero III with Guitar (PlayStation 2) 271,100
5. Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS) 262,800
6. Wii Play with Remote (Wii) 239,700
7. Orange Box (Xbox 360) 238,400
8. Guitar Hero III (PlayStation 2) 231.700
9. FIFA Soccer 08 (PlayStation 2) 129.700
10. Brain Age 2 (DS) 116.900

Hardware

1. Wii - 519,000
2. Nintendo DS - 458,000
3. Xbox 360 - 366,000
4. PSP - 286,000
5. PlayStation 2 - 184,000
6. PlayStation 3 - 121,000

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo