July saw urban crime yielded to university athletics on NPD Funworld's console-game charts, with June's top game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the Xbox, knocked off by the PlayStation 2 version of NCAA Football 06. The move was expected, given the popularity of Electronic Arts' now-exclusive university-gridiron franchise, the Xbox version of which finished second. The seventh-place Xbox San Andreas will likely fall further when NPD's August figures are released, having been pulled from most store shelves in late July after being retroactively rated Adults Only.

　　Meanwhile, Xbox owners looking for action of a nonfelonious kind scooped up the Halo 2 Multiplayer Pack in droves, making it July's third best-selling game. The top 10 saw two other new entrants for full-sized consoles: Fantastic 4 for the PlayStation 2 (5th) and 2004's Star Wars: Battlefront for the PS2 (10th), the latter of which which saw resurgent sales due do a new budget price.

　　However, it was the handheld race that had some of July's interesting developments. The month saw the two highest-ranked debuts of PSP games since the platform launched in late March. The portable version of Rockstar Games' Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition ranked 9th in overall sales, the best debut ever for a PSP game and the first to break the top 10. While still below Pokemon Emerald, which only dropped two places from second to fourth, Midnight Club 3's strong showing was indicative of the PSP's growing user base. It was also better than any DS debut since that platform, which has still sold millions more units than the PSP, launched in November 2004. But that may change in the wake of Nintendogs' August 22 release...

　　In at number 11 was Coded Arms, which overcame middling-to-poor reviews to score the second-highest PSP debut yet. Its popularity is likely due to the fact that is the only first-person shooter for the format released so far, which augurs well for future PSP action games such as Star Wars: Battlefront II, SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo, and Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories.

　　Over on the PC charts it was much the same story in July as it was in June. Battlefield 2 held its position at number one, keeping former chart-conquerors World of Warcraft (2nd) and Guild Wars (3rd) at bay. It will also come as no surprise that a slew of Sims games were among the PC best-sellers, including The Sims 2 University (4th), The Sims 2 (5th), The Sims Deluxe (8th), and The Sims: Unleashed (9th). In fact, the only new entrant in the PC top 10 was the expansion pack Roller Coaster Tycoon 3: Soaked!, which was released in late June.