The Xbox 360 continued its ride as the most popular game console in the U.S. last month, though Nintendo announced that lifetime sales of its DS line of products have now surpassed 50 million units.
Microsoft sold 438,000 Xbox 360 consoles in September for 42 percent of the market, according to NPD Group. In total, consumers spent $534 million on Xbox hardware, software, and accessories during the month, which Microsoft said was twice the amount for its nearest competitor.
The company said its Kinect add-on "continues to gain momentum" and will have 75 games available for the holidays.
Last week, Microsoft announced plans to team up with Comcast and Verizon FiOS, as well as a variety of content providers, to bring the companies' services to its Xbox Live platform. And yesterday, eBay said Xbox 360 owners will be able to use PayPal on the console this holiday season.
Nintendo, meanwhile, said it sold more than 260,000 Nintendo 3DS consoles in September, up 10 percent from the previous month. In August, Nintendo dropped the price of the 3DS from $249.99 to $169.99 in the U.S., and the company said it has sold almost 450,000 units since that change.
Altogether, Nintendo sold 647,000 consoles last month, including 240,000 Wii systems and 145,000 Nintendo DS devices.
That helped boost the DS family to more than 50 million units of sale in its lifetime, as well as 273 million software units.
"The Nintendo DS forever changed the gaming landscape, and the fact that consumers continue to embrace the platform is a testament to its value and mass appeal," Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales and marketing, said in a statement. "Our hand-held story continues with the Nintendo 3DS system, which just had its second consecutive month of growth and enters its first holiday season with a monster lineup of games, including Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7."
In terms of physical game sales, the most popular game last month was Madden NFL 12, followed by Gears of War 3, Dead Island, FIFA Soccer 12, and NHL 12.
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