The video-game industry recorded an 18% growth in October which is a critical month of the fourth quarter that also includes the holyday shopping season. The growth came on the background of a major decline in the sales of portable players.

According to data provided by the NPD Group, a market research firm, the video-game industry grew to $2.2 billion in October, a figure that keeps the industry on its way to top $22 billion for the entire fiscal year. However, a decline was registered in the pace of the grouth. Video-games sales were up 18% higher in October 2008 than in October 2007, but the year-to-year increase for September was of 26%.

The most important increase in sales was registered in the console portion of the market, while the portable side of the market declined 14%.

"Year-to-date the portable segment of the market is still up 7%," NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a statement.

The handheld gaming was strong for the month. The best selling platform was Wii, followed by Nintendo DS. PSP sold better that PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3. Wii recorded its best sales month since last November and December.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s price cuts for its Xbox 360 boosted sales with 7% over September. The Xbox 360 sold 371,000 units in October, up 28,000 units from September. And the sales pace was even higher considering the fact that September was a five-week month while October had four.

Sony recorded a 57% increase in sales of the PlayStation 3 to have the highest year-over-year monthly increase compared to the other industry rivals. Sony sold 190,000 units of the PS3, while the PSP sold 193,000 units and the PS2 sold 136,000 units

Nintendo is still operating on a scale far above its industry rivals. The Wii sold 803,000 units and the Nintendo DS sold 491,000 for the month.

As for the video games, the best-seller was Xbox 360’s Fable 2 with 790,000 units sold, followed by Wii Fit with 487,000 copies sold. The top five was completed by Fallout 3 with 375,000 units sold, Mario Kart with 290,000 and Wii Play with 282,000 sold.