September was a big month for music games, with Activision’s Guitar Hero 5 launching on the first, and Harmonix’s The Beatles: Rock Band hitting stores just over a week later. After early reports stated that Guitar Hero 5 had sold more than TB:RB (granted, this was mere days after Beatles: Rock Band’s launch), it now appears that it was the other way around for the month as a whole. Industry analyst Jesse Divnich stated to Industry Gamers that while both games exceeded sales expectations, it appears that The Beatles: Rock Band sold better overall in September, with one million units, versus 800,000 for Guitar Hero 5.

I spent a good amount of time playing both of these titles, and while Guitar Hero 5 was Activision’s most improved game in the franchise in years, I still thought that The Beatles: Rock Band was the better music game offering, despite having fewer songs. This can be seen as a victory for Harmonix, or for the music genre at large. Maybe the lesson here is that gamers aren’t losing interest in rhythm titles, just an endless number of spin-offs that don’t really need to be made. Or maybe that’s just me. At any rate, it's hard to declare a real winner until the dust from the holiday season has started, so let's check back again in January and see which game sold more then.