The bumpy economy continued to take a toll on U.S. console gaming market in October, the last full month before the peak holiday sales season. Overall sales of video games hardware, software and accessories fell 19 percent compared with the same month last year, according to the NPD Group research firm.

Sony's PlayStation 3 continued to improve its position, with 320,600 units sold in the country for the month, up considerably from its October 2008 result of 190,000 units. Nintendo's Wii reclaimed the top spot for the month, with 506,900 units sold, but that was down from more 800,000 units sold a year ago.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 sold 249,700 units, in third place based purely on hardware unit sales. However, in an interesting twist, the Xbox 360 platform still led the industry in total revenue from hardware, software and accessories for the month, claiming 27 percent of U.S. industry sales, according to NPD data. That was just ahead of the PlayStation 3, which came in at 26 percent, up 8 percentage points year-over-year.

"Year-to-date, the hardware category has experienced the sharpest decline in the industry, with unit sales down 10% compared to the same time period last year," said Anita Frazier, an NPD analyst, in a summary of the results. "Recent price cuts helped spur a one to two-month increase in unit sales, and this month's Wii sales reflect that boost, but the other platforms have not sustained the sales momentum post price reduction."