Just like Peter Parker in the movie Spider-Man 2, the latest batch of NPD numbers arrived late. By coincidence, Spider-Man 2 the game was atop those charts as the number-one best-seller overall, the top PlayStation 2 title, the number-two Xbox game, and the number-five GameCube selection.

　　The much-derided PC version of Spider-Man 2 didn't even crack the top 20 PC games. But even if it had, there's little chance it could've unseated City of Heroes, which has reigned supreme since April. NCsoft's superhero role-playing game was followed by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and the original Rise of Nations. The only new game to crack the top 10 was NovaLogic's modern-combat shooter Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising, the sixth best-selling title of the month.

　　Besides Spider-Man 2, the big name in the console game was Driver 3. Despite poor reviews, the combination of driving action and third-person shooter was the second best-selling PS2 game and fifth best-selling Xbox game. The other major multiplatform releases were Shrek 2 (#3 PS2, #9 Xbox, #4 GC) and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (#4 PS2, #8 Xbox, #2 GC). Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow also appeared on both the PS2 and Xbox charts, coming in ninth and seventh, while the Mega Man Anniversary Collection graced the PS2 and GameCube lists at tenth and third.

　　The most console-exclusive activity was in the Xbox top 10, which saw the first-place debut of Full Spectrum Warrior and a third-place finish for Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures also came out on top of the GameCube best-sellers, while three Classic NES Series--Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Donkey Kong, arrived in the Game Boy Advance top 10.