October 2011 NPD: Battlefield 3 takes top spot, Batman close behind, 360 the top console

November has already been such a beast for game releases and we haven’t even hit the gaming Ragnarok of November 15, so you might have forgotten October was a pretty wild month for games too. Today the NPD group released sales for October and while we weren’t too shocked by the results, it at least highlighted what a huge month it was. And if we had to pick one winner for the month, it seems to be the 360.

Here’s the top 10 for software:

1. Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)
2. Batman: Arkham City (360, PS3)
3. NBA 2K12 (360, PS3, PSP, Wii, PS2, PC)
4. Rage (360, PS3, PC)
5. Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360)
6. Dark Souls (PS3, 360)
7. Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP)
8. Forza Motorsport 4 (360)
9. Gears of War 3 (360)
10. FIFA Soccer 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2, 3DS)

Those positions are based on sales for every edition of the game and given what we already knew about Battlefield 3 and Batman sales we expected to see those two in the top spot. NBA 2K12 in third was a little more of unpredictable despite us loving it; perhaps those sales were spurred by sadness at the prospect of no real NBA games. Rage beat Just Dance 3, which we’re betting the folks at id are pretty happy about right now, and Dark Souls is looking about as good with sales as early news predicted.

Then there’s the hardware chart:

Xbox 360 - 393,000
3DS – More than 250,000
PS3 - 250,000 (estimate)
Wii - 250,000
NDS - 180,000

Those Nintendo numbers come from our previous sales story, while Microsoft proudly tweeted its winning numbers. Sony was less open, so don’t take those PS3 numbers as total fact, and PSP’s sales are a mystery. As you may have noticed, Microsoft is all over both lists, as each game in the top ten had a 360 SKU. Since November features exclusives like Uncharted 3 and Super Mario 3D Land we doubt this trend will repeat, and October seemed to be a good month for everyone, but if a winner must be declared for some, October was Microsoft’s.