The NPD Group has released its sales figures for the month of September 2009, revealing a dramatic surge in sales of Sony's PlayStation 3 following release of a new 250GB model last month and a price reduction. Sony's PS3 beat Nintendo's Wii game console for the first time in the U.S., according to the study. The PS3 was also more popular from Microsoft's Xbox 360 machine, according to the study.

Hardware sales:

Nintendo DS 524.2K
PlayStation 3 491.8K
Wii 462.8K
Xbox 360 352.6K
PSP 190.4K
PlayStation 2 146.0K

The PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 saw a unit sales increase of 87, 33 and 31 per cent, respectively, when sales were averaged on a per-week basis.

Overall, U.S. game hardware sales fell 6 percent from a year ago, while software sales rose 5 percent, NPD said.

Nintendo's Wii also saw a recent price cut which helped boost sales 67 percent compared to the prior month, according to company data. Sony said sales of its Playstation 3 grew 134 percent versus August.

On the software side, Halo 3: ODST ended up with 1.52 million copies sold in a week. The Beatles: Rock Band, meanwhile, seems to have bested Guitar Hero 5 in the battle of the September music games.

Software Sales:

HALO 3: ODST (360; Sep-09) 1.52M
WII SPORTS RESORT W/ WII MOTION PLUS (WII; Jul-09) 442.9K
MADDEN NFL 10 (360; Aug-09) 289.6K
MARIO & LUIGI:BOWSER'S INSIDE STORY (NDS; Sep-09) 258.1K
THE BEATLES:ROCK BAND (360; Sep-09) 254.0K
MADDEN NFL 10 (PS3; Aug-09) 246.5K
MARVEL:ULTIMATE ALLIANCE 2 (360; Sep-09) 236.0K
BATMAN:ARKHAM ASYLUM (PS3; Aug-09) 212.5K
GUITAR HERO 5 (360; Sep-09) 210.8K
THE BEATLES:ROCK BAND (WII; Sep-09) 208.6K