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Market research firm NPD is reporting that U.S. sales of video game hardware and software increased 73 percent in October.

Total sales reached $1.1 billion, compared with $643 million a year earlier. The Nintendo Wii console moved back into the top spot as the best selling console. Nintendo sold 519,000 Wiis, Microsoft sold 366,000 Xbox 360 consoles and Sony sold 121,000 of its PlayStation 3 consoles.

"What this demonstrates is that we are putting more and more product into the marketplace and we continue to sell out as soon as it hits," said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime.

In September, the Xbox 360 took the top spot over the Wii, which had held the position all year, due to a surge from Microsoft's popular "Halo 3" game. "Software continues to be a real highlight for us. We had more software sales in the month of October than the Wii and PS3 combined," Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for Xbox Live, told Reuters.

Sony has tried to increase sales of its PS3 by lowering prices and the company's internal data showed a 192 percent rise in PS3 sales after cutting prices. Sony said it "expects a great deal of momentum moving forward this holiday and beyond."

"Remember that the PS3 price cut came in November so we'll have to wait until our data comes out next month to see the effect of that cut on retail sell-through of the hardware," NPD analyst Anita Frazier said.