U.S. October Game Sales Detailed, Analyzed

Following warnings that U.S. console game sales during October were down almost 25 percent on the previous year’s figures, to just $365 million, complete information on the NPD's Top 20 best-selling games for October have emerged, with Sony’s online squad based shoot ‘em-up SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs confirmed as the best selling game of the month. The drop in overall sales has been attributed to the relative lack of blockbuster titles, with no games to match the impact of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Fable or Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen at the same time last year. Certainly, there seems to be little in the chart to match the profile of these games, with the PlayStation 2 version of NBA Live 06 managing to remain at the number two spot for a second month, and the PlayStation 2 version of Madden NFL 06 falling only two places to number three. There are only two non-PlayStation 2 titles in the top ten, the highest ranking being Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories for the PSP at number four (the only PSP title in the top twenty), with Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness at for the GameCube at number six (also the only GameCube title in the top twenty). The rest of the games in the top ten are also all-new entries, with Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi at number five, Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves at number eight and Shadow of the Colossus at number ten. Rockstar’s The Warriors has entered at a relatively subdued number nine, while FIFA Soccer 06 has performed unexpectedly well at number seven – the best ever result for the series in the U.S. There are only three Xbox titles in the top twenty, with the highest being new entry Far Cry: Instincts at number thirteen. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow at number fourteen is the only Nintendo DS game in the top twenty, although it does represent a strong performance from a normally niche franchise.