Game sales rose an amazing 52 percent in September, driven by the record-setting pace of Grand Theft Auto V sales, the latest NPD report shows. It’s certainly a bright spot, but that’s primarily something that TakeTwo can celebrate. For most of the industry, sales at retail stores in September were not great, although digital sales neared $1 billion. The overall category (hardware, software and accessories) rose only 27 percent despite GTA V, showing just how strongly hardware sales are declining in the face of new consoles coming next month.

All categories combined, September 2013 at retail in the USA showed $1.079 billion in sales compared to $848 million in September 2012. Hardware sales sank from $211 million to $183.2 million, while software sales rose from $497.5 million to $754.3 million. Accessories went up from $139.5 million to $142.3 million.

“Grand Theft Auto V represented over 50 percent of dollar sales in September, and had the highest first month sales than any other previous launch in the Grand Theft Auto franchise,” said NPD’s Liam Callahan. “New software launches from the month of September combined to represent 63 percent of unit sales for the month. This was a big jump from what new software launches experienced last September, and caused average prices to rise by 18 percent for software as a greater percentage of sales stemmed from full-priced items.”

There was also good news for Nintendo in the September sales numbers. “Wii U hardware sales benefitted from a price drop in September,” said Callahan, “Along with the new hardware bundle which included The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD, sales were up over 100 percent on an average per-week basis from August 2013.” The 3DS also did well, securing the top hardware spot for the fifth consecutive month. Prospects look good for the 3DS line in October with the launch of the Nintendo 2DS, and Pokémon X & Y.

Meanwhile, Microsoft finally lost the title of #1 selling game console in the USA to the PS3. Sony’s win was due to the amazing popularity of Grand Theft Auto V, according to NPD. “PS3 was the top selling console this month, breaking the 32-month streak of the Xbox 360 leading console hardware sales from January 2011 to August 2013,” said Callahan. “The PS3’s success this month was largely driven by sales of the ‘PS3 Super Slim 500GB GTA V Bundle,’ demonstrating how Grand Theft Auto V can shake things up on in hardware as well as software.”

Overall, though, game console sales continued their decline by dropping 13 percent from last September despite the boost that GTA V provided. Video game accessories rose a meager 2 percent over last September, “due to an astounding growth in Interactive Gaming Toys, which saw an increase of over 180 percent as sales from the second month of Disney Infinity items combined with Skylanders items to generate impressive results,” said Callahan.

Top sellers for the month of September (after GTA V) were Madden NFL, NBA 2K14, Diablo III and FIFA 14,and there are no real surprises there. Nintendo is still having a hard time with both the Wii U and the 3DS, as demonstrated by the fact that Disney Infinity at #7 was the only Nintendo Wii U or 3DS title to make it into the top ten list. Interestingly, Saints Row IV made it on at #10, probably because of GTA V… but it’s not clear exactly why that should be the case.

Rank Title
#1      Grand Theft Auto V (360, PS3)**
#2      Madden NFL 25 (360, PS3)
#3      NBA 2K14 (360, PS3, PC)
#4      Diablo III (360, PS3, PC)**
#5      FIFA 14 (360, PS3, Vita)
#6      Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX (PS3)
#7      Disney Infinity (360, WII, PS3, NWU, 3DS)
#8      NHL 14 (360, PS3)
#9      Minecraft (360)
#10   Saints Row IV (360, PS3, PC)**
** Includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware