Wii sells over half a million in the US during October

Outsells the PlayStation 3 by over four-to-one.

Official North American sales figures for the month of October have been released by the NPD group, revealing the Wii and Nintendo DS to be the dominant platforms once again.

The Wii sold a very impressive 519,000 units, followed closely by the Nintendo DS with 458,000 units. The Xbox 360 also continues to sell well in North America, which although down from a high of 528,000 units in September, moved a very respectable 366,000 units.

PlayStation 3 sales are marginally up over September, an increase of 2,000 units to 121,000, but November sales are expected to more than double this figure following the recent price cut and introduction of a cheaper 40GB model.

PSP sales also remain strong on the back of the Slim & Lite; the handheld is up by 1,000 units to 286,000.

Software sales for the month were dominated by Activision's Guitar Hero III, moving a combined 1.4 million units on all formats. The leading platform for the game was the PlayStation 2 (combined sales of the solus game and guitar bundle) selling 614,000 units, followed by the Xbox 360 with 383,200 units, Wii with 286,300 units and PS3 with a disappointing 105,800 units.

Besides Guitar Hero, other titles to perform well during October included Halo 3 (433,000 units), Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (262,800 units) and Orange Box for Xbox 360 (238,400 units).

Casualties for the month include Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (74,500 units) and Project Gotham Racing 4 which moved only 38,300 units.