NPD's U.S. sales figures for the month of September--the month of Bungie's Halo 3 launch--have arrived. Led by the highly anticipated title, total video game sales for the month reached $1.36 billion, a 74% year-over-year increase. Home console sales showed the most marked increase across the board, with $418.6 million in revenue, nearly three times more than the same month last year before the Wii and PlayStation 3 launches.

Both software and hardware sales were dominated by either Halo 3 or the game's platform, Xbox 360. Unsurprisingly taking the top spot for software, sales of all Halo 3 versions hit 3,256,082 units, bringing Microsoft approximately $225 million in revenue. Each version actually sold more on its own that any game in September, with the standard $59.99 edition's 2,367,795 leading, followed by the $69.99 collector's edition with 511,437, and the $129.99 Spartan helmet-including Legendary edition's 376,850 units sold.

No doubt spurred by Halo 3's launch, the 360 sold the most out of any hardware platform, with its 528,000 systems nearly doubling sales from a month prior. But even the Wii's second place at 501,000 consoles sold set a record for the platform, surpassing even the Wii's launch month in the states. Sony's systems took the last two spots in home console sales, with the PlayStation 2's 215,000 and the PlayStation 3's 119,000 units.

Sales of portable consoles were up as well to $126.2 million, a 28% year-over-year increase, led by strong DS sales of 496,000. As always, the PSP trailed in second with 285,000, despite September seeing the launch of the system's slimmer redesign.

After Halo 3, software sales for the month revealed an assortment of titles for all platforms bringing in $550.5 million total for the consoles, a 64% increase. Interestingly, sales of the PS2 version of EA Tiburon's Madden NFL 08 beat sales of the Xbox 360 version of the game. The 360 version beat the PS2 iteration handily last month, revealing something of a shift in the home console climate. Check out the top ten software sales and their respective figures below:

1. Halo 3 (Bungie, Microsoft Game Studios, X360) - 3,256,082
2. Wii Play with Wii Remote (Nintendo, Wii) - 282,000
3. The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo, NDS) - 224,000
4. Madden NFL 08 (EA Tiburon, EA Sports, PS2) - 205,000
5. Skate (EA Black Box, EA Games, X360) - 175,000
6. Madden NFL 08 (EA Tiburon, EA Sports, X360) - 173,000
7. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Retro Studios, Nintendo, Wii) - 167,000
8. BioShock (2K Boston/2K Australia, 2K Games, X360) - 150,000
9. Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day (Nintendo, NDS) - 141,000
10. Heavenly Sword (Ninja Theory, SCEE, PS3) - 139,000