PS3 Becomes Top-selling Game Console
PS3 Surpasses Xbox 360 after 32 month streak
For the first time in quite a while, PlayStation 3 topped sales charts as the best-selling console last month. NPD, an industry analytics company, said that the boost in sales was primarily a result of the GTA V 500 GB hardware bundle with the Sony platform. For the past 32 months, the Xbox 360 has been the top dog, and despite relatively weak sales in September, finally crossed the 80 million unit threshold.
Posting just over a billion in sales, September was a strong month for the U.S. side of the industry. Grand Theft Auto V, NPD analyst Liam Callahan said, was a "shot in the arm for the industry" and demonstrated how "Grand Theft Auto V can shake things up in hardware as well as software."
With this much money being dumped into new old consoles, it'll be interesting to see if these strong September sales take a bite out of PS4 and Xbox One's holiday numbers.

Of course, Wii is still #1 with 100M units sold (and will probably continue to be #1 with that $99 price tag).
I've still yet to meet any person in real life who is going to buy the xBone. They are all PS4... as will I.
that is how sony/MSFT/nintendo make their money
and why nintendo didnt make a huge windfall from Wii
It is not that the last runner crosses the finish line, it is that the runner that was last in total consoles sold (the PS3) is now second, by overtaking the Xbox360 (that is now 3rd). The 1st runner remains 1st (Wii). Also, the only reason why the PS3 was behind the Xbox360 was because Sony released it 1 year after the 360. They're not making that mistake this time around. See this link for total console sales, Wii is 1st, PS3 2nd, Xbox360 3rd:
http://www.vgchartz.com/
Looks like free multiplayer finally made the PS3 2nd.
It is not that the last runner crosses the finish line, it is that the runner that was last in total consoles sold (the PS3) is now second, by overtaking the Xbox360 (that is now 3rd). The 1st runner remains 1st (Wii). Also, the only reason why the PS3 was behind the Xbox360 was because Sony released it 1 year after the 360. They're not making that mistake this time around. See this link for total console sales, Wii is 1st, PS3 2nd, Xbox360 3rd:
sony did not make a mistake. They were waiting for bluray drives to be ready for mass production. MS rushed the 360 to market as their Xbox 1 had already lost to the PS2. Hence the high failure rates with RROD... upwards of 30% for the first 30m 360 units. It was always silly to consider the PS3 a failure as its sales were always a year behind.
Also, in terms of value... the PS3 was always the better deal... once you spent $120 for the HD and $80 for the WiFi... not including the $200 HD DVD drive put the 360 on par with the PS3 in pricing. The bluray drive helped kill HDDVD and move the HD format forward... thank god.
Now for this round... both consoles start at the same time. But MS messed up big time with xbone as we all know and the extra $100 price is not helping. Even if the xbone sold for $400, its the loser platform. And developers will notice quickly... and like blu-ray vs HDDVD, they will make less exclusives for the loser platform.
Sure Wii is #1 in hardware sales... but bombs in software unless you are Nintendo. And since its nothing more than an updated gamecube... its $200 price made it an easy sell compared to the $300-600 360/ps3 consoles which were actually a new gen. Nintendo stupidly tried this trick again with the wiiU and its a failure. Wow... 360 tech for $360 with NO DVD or BluRay playback?! Even the ps3 is down to $200-250... and has a ton of software. I predict that wiiU will have one more Christmas... then Nintendo will give up and start making titles ONLY for the PS3/4. No 3rd party support... and with so few consoles means very little software sales which is their gas cow.
Then MS will lose this round... come up with the 4th Xbox in 2 years maybe 3... and attempt to win with technology horse power.