The NPD Group data for October is now out, and the numbers are good for the videogame industry, even as the world seems to be slipping further into an economic depression with each day. When compared with the October of 2007, the industry managed to grow by more than 18%, with sales going over 1.31 billion dollars, which is a truly spectacular figure.

Hardware sales went up by only 5% to reach 494.74 million dollars in one month on the North American market. The two top spots were occupied, as usual, by the two gaming consoles produced by Nintendo. The Wii home console sold 803,000 units in October, while the DS handheld managed to sell only 491,000 devices.

The Xbox 360, made by Microsoft, was at third spot, still reaping the dividends of its September price cut. It pushed 371,000 consoles to customers and, while not directly threatening the dominance of the Nintendo Wii, as Microsoft might have hoped, it is well ahead of the PlayStation 3, the console made by Sony which has seen sales remain steady at 190,000 in one month.

Analysts continue to be surprised by the staying power of the PlayStation 2, which is still selling 136,000 consoles in one month, even if its technology is outdated and only a handful of games are released for it. The strength of the PS2 lies mainly in its huge library of available games.

The Xbox 360 is outselling the PS3 by almost 2 to 1 but, if we take the PlayStation 2 into account, the Microsoft lead is significantly reduced. The upcoming Christmas shopping season will be another occasion to see how the three big home consoles fare in the marketplace. The Xbox 360 still enjoys an advantage in price, but Sony is trying hard to reposition the PlayStation 3 as being a more complete device, stressing the importance of the Blu-ray players.