Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Battlefield 3, Arkham City dominate October US sales

While Xbox 360 tops hardware chart by huge margin.

Battlefield 3 was the top-selling game in the US for the month of October, selling just shy of two million copies, according to the latest NPD sales data.

Batman: Arkham City came in second selling a very healthy 1.5 million units, followed by NBA 2K12 and Rage. According to GameInformer, id Software's shooter sold 550,000 copies in its debut month.

From Software's no-nonsense RPG Dark Souls stormed the chart at six, while Forza 4 debuted in eighth. Sales figures for those titles have not been announced.

The full top 10 lined up as follows:

  1. Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC), Electronic Arts
  2. Batman: Arkham City (360, PS3), Warner Bros. Interactive
  3. NBA 2K12 (360, PS3, PSP, Wii, PS2, PC), Take Two Interactive
  4. Rage (360, PS3, PC), Bethesda Softworks
  5. Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360), Ubisoft
  6. Dark Souls (PS3, 360), Namco Bandai Games
  7. Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP), Electronic Arts
  8. Forza Motorsport 4 (360), Microsoft
  9. Gears of War 3 (360), Microsoft
  10. FIFA Soccer 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2, 3DS), Electronic Arts

Yet again, Xbox 360 was the biggest selling console of the month, with year-on-year sales up nearly 21 per cent to 393,000.

The 3DS had a good month too, with Nintendo announcing sales of over 250,000. The Wii shifted "nearly 250,000", while 180,000 Americans opted for an original DS over its flashier successor.

Sony didn't make PlayStation 3 sales figures public, though NPD confirmed that the 3DS was the second biggest seller of the month, putting PS3 sales below 250,000.