(AP) -- U.S. retail sales of video game hardware, software and accessories rose 1 percent to $1.08 billion in October, helped by sales of "Battlefield 3," market researcher NPD Group said Friday.

Hardware sales, which include such as the Xbox 360 and the , rose 6 percent from October 2010 to $295.6 million.

Sales of software, or the video games themselves, rose 3 percent to $621.3 million.

That's well short of the 21 percent year-over-year increase that Cowen and Co. analyst Doug Creutz was expecting. Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter, meanwhile, was forecasting a 14 percent software sales growth.

When including PC games in addition to games for consoles and hand-held gaming devices such as the Nintendo DS, software sales rose 1 percent to $649.5 million.

"Battlefield 3," a military shooter from Electronic Arts Inc. was the month's best-selling game with just under 2 million units sold.

The year's biggest game, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" went on sale Nov. 8 so it's not counted in the current sales figures.

NPD does not include game downloads and online games played on Facebook and mobile devices in its monthly retail sales data.