NPD: Software up 10%; God of War III month's best seller

The latest NPD figures have shown that software sales in the US increased by 10 per cent in March.

Leading the way in those sales was the PlayStation 3, which contributed the most of all of the platforms to overall dollar sales.

Sony's God of War III was the best selling game of the month, with sales of 1.1 million - a 32 per cent increase on God of War II - and a further three PS3 titles made it into the top ten best sellers - Final Fantasy XIII, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and MLB 10: The Show.

NPD analyst Anita Frazier noted that although Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 dropped out of the top ten in March, the title has now become the second best selling game of all time, after Nintendo's Wii Play.

"Thanks in large part to its multi-platform launch on Xbox 360 and PS3, Final Fantasy 13 is the best launch for any item in the franchise. The next closest was Final Fantasy XII, a PS2 exclusive, which launched and sold 896K units in Nov '06. FFXIII sales in its introduction month were 48 percent greater than that of FFXII," Frazier added.

"In its first month of sales in the U.S., Battlefield: Bad Company 2 bested the launch of Battlefield: Bad Company by +170 percent. Even considering that the first was launched later in its introduction month while BC2 enjoyed nearly a full month of sales, the increase is impressive."

The top ten best sellers in March were as follows:

• 01 God of War III (PS3) - 1.10 million
• 02 Pokemon SoulSilver (DS) - 1.02 million
• 03 Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) - 828,200
• 04 Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Xbox 360) - 825,500
• 05 Pokemon HeartGold (DS), 761,200
• 06 Final Fantasy XIII (Xbox 360) - 493,900
• 07 New Super Mario Bros Wii (Wii) - 457,400
• 08 Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PS3) - 451,200
• 09 Wii Fit Plus w/ Balance Board (Wii) - 429,600
• 10 MLB 10: The Show (PS3) - 349,200