That 1.5 million breaks down to more than 550,000 Wii consoles and more than 1 million Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi portables, according to Nintendo's internal estimates. In terms of frequency, that's over 150 Nintendo hardware units sold every minute, more than 2.5 smiles put on faces every second.

Yes, those are impressive numbers. But one of those numbers was more impressive last year, when Nintendo says it sold more than 800,000 Wiis during the same time period.

In 2007, Nintendo sold a comparitively meager 350,000 Wiis during the Thanksgiving spending spree. That year, Nintendo boasted that Nintendo DS sales topped 600,000 during the same week long period, a number that jumped 20% the following year, nothing that compares to the new 1 million unit sold record held by combined DS and DSi sales.

Since Nintendo sold 506,900 Wii consoles and 457,600 Nintendo DSs during the full month of October, we'll bet the company will have something to brag about when November's tally rolls around. While we suspect it won't shatter November 2008's amazing, "historic" records,, we wouldn't be surprised to see Nintendo branded things topping the charts.

According to NPD data released today, the Warner Bros. Interactive-published DS game sold nearly 194,000 copies in its first month on the market. That puts it behind Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days as the third bestselling DS game for the month.

Scribblenauts was one of only two third party games to make it into the top ten bestselling games for Nintendo's portable platform, a list dominated by Nintendo-published fare. While 5th Cell may already be hard at work on a new Xbox Live Arcade game, surely they won't leaving money on the table by not producing a sequel, right? Right!

That makes Halo 3: ODST the bestselling game in the United States by a wide margin, outselling its nearest competitor, Wii Sports Resort, by more than a million copies. It's not quite as impressive as the launch of Halo 3, which turned in 3.3 million copies when it launched, but clearly enough for the win.

ODST had some stiff competition in September, with new top ten software appearances from games like Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, the only portable game to chart, Madden NFL 10 and The Beatles: Rock Band. Superhero games also scored big, with Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and Batman: Arkham Asylum moving more than 200,000 copies each on the Xbox 360 and PS3 respectively.

Here's how September's game sales worked out, by the numbers.

01. Halo 3: ODST (Xbox 360) - 1,520,000
02. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 442,900
03. Madden NFL 10 (Xbox 360) - 298,600
04. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS) - 258,100
05. The Beatles: Rock Band (Xbox 360) - 254,000
06. Madden NFL 10 (PS3) - 246,500
07. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (Xbox 360) - 236,000
08. Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3) - 212,500
09. Guitar Hero 5 (Xbox 360) - 210,800
10. The Beatles: Rock Band (Wii) - 208,600

Game purchases for the month amounted to $649.32 million, a five percent increase over the previous September. We're sure the video game industry has already sent a thank you card to Bungie for the uncommon boost.

Here's NPD analyst Anita Frazier's take on the whole thing.

"Halo 3 certainly impacted the industry two years ago (Sep'07) when it was launched, and this year, Halo 3: ODST realized impressive sales making it the 6th best-selling SKU launch of all time," she says.

"We know all eyes are going to be on the Rock Band and Guitar Hero sales since the music/dance genre has been so closely followed by many this year. Both titles captured a spot in the top 10 for the month and at the item level, across all platforms, The Beatles: Rock Band came in third behind Halo 3: ODST and Madden NFL 10 while Guitar Hero 5 came in fourth. The Beatles: Rock Band achieved this level of success with an average retail price premium of 130% to the average retail price for software overall. The sales of Rock Band and Guitar Hero led the music/dance genre to a 72% dollar sales increase over September 2008."

"Madden NFL 10 made up some ground this month," Frazier points out, finding the silver lining in Madden's weaker 2009 sales. "Although when launched in August the game sold 19% fewer units than its predecessor a year prior, with a second month of sales in, that deficit has been reduced to 13%, which bodes very well for the title through the holiday season."

Sony's recent price drop was in effect for the full month of September, more than doubling month-to-month PS3 sales to the tune of 491,800. That's easily better than its nearest competitor, the Wii, which managed 462,800 units sold in the United States last month and well beyond what the Xbox 360 sold.

None of those consoles, however, managed to outsell Nintendo's DS platform, which continues its six month streak atop the NPD Group's hardware chart with another half-million plus sold.

• Nintendo DS - 524,200
• PlayStation 3 - 491,800
• Wii - 462,800
• Xbox 360 - 352,600
• PSP - 190,400
• PlayStation 2 - 146,000

Total hardware sales in the U.S. amounted to $472.28 million during the month of September, which runs from 8/30 to 10/03, according to the NPD Group's window. Speaking of NPD, here's what analyst Anita Frazier had to say.

"All three console manufacturers enjoyed the impact of lower prices on unit sales as the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 realized an increase over August of 87%, 33%, and 31% respectively, on an average sales per week basis (keeping in mind September was a 5-week month compared to 4-weeks in August)."

"Compared to last September, the PS3 was the big winner, more than doubling last year's sales," Frazier notes, pointing to last September's less than impressive fifth place finish for the PlayStation 3. "This portrays a very strong consumer reaction to the price decrease as August and September both realized a lift of more than 70% over the prior month."

Madden NFL 10 leads the NPD Group's top ten with 928,000 units sold on the Xbox 360. That's a drop from last year's cool million. And while Madden sales were up year-over-year on the PlayStation 3, the game suffered on the PlayStation 2 and Wii, with the sports game moving less than half of what it did on the PS2 from the same period last year.

All told, Madden NFL 10 managed to move 1.9 million copies across all platforms in August, down from the 2.2 million-plus Madden NFL 09 managed last year.

But NPD Group estimates had good news for Nintendo and Square Enix/Eidos. Wii Sports Resort continues to sell, as does Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii. That means plenty of Wii MotionPlus, Balance Board and Wii Wheel accessories in U.S. homes. Nintendo's Fossil Fighters for the Nintendo DS managed to crack the NPD top ten, with the kid friendly game moving 92,000 units.

U.S. consumers snapped up 593,000 copies of Batman: Arkham Asylum.

01. Madden NFL 10 (Xbox 360) - 928,000
02. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 754,000
03. Madden NFL 10 (PS3) - 665,000
04. Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360) - 303,000
05. Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3) - 290,000
06. Madden NFL 10 (PS2) - 160,000
07. Dissidia: Final Fantasy (PSP) - 130,000
08. Wii Fit (Wii) - 128,000
09. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 120,000
10. Fossil Fighters (DS) - 92,000

All told, U.S. game buyers snapped up $470.32 million in games last month, a 15% decline from August of 2008. Here's NPD analyst Anita Frazier with some silver lining.

"The PS3 was the only platform to realize a year-over-year increase in total software sales and this is reflected in the top 10 list for the month which includes two PS3 games," says Frazier. It should be an interesting September, when we can see how the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 price drops affected sales of each platform over the course of an entire month.

According to the NPD Group, Sony sold 210,000 PlayStation 3s in the U.S. last month. With a $100 drop taking effect at some retailers as early as August 18th, that likely translates to a price conscious boost in sales. The Xbox 360, which also experienced a late August drop, got a minor boost.

In fact, every platform, with the exception of the PlayStation 2, saw a rise in sales, but it was the PS3's that stands out from the pack. Leading that pack, however, was the Nintendo DS, which more than half a million units in August, DS Lite and DSi combined.

Overall, though, it was bad news for the industry, which saw its sixth consecutive month-to-month decline.

• Nintendo DS - 552,900
• Wii - 277,400
• Xbox 360 - 215,400
• PlayStation 3 - 210,000
• PSP - 140,300
• PlayStation 2 - 105,900

Total hardware spend for August was $297.60 million, according to the NPD Group. That's down from $395.34 million from August 2008.

* Combined, that is. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of this year's NCAA Football joined forces to sell over 613,000 copies, besting Wii Sports Resort in multi-SKU semantics. Across all platforms, the NPD Group says, EA Sports' college footballer moved over 689,000 units. I smell sequel!

The line up is, like most months, Nintendo platform heavy. Seven of the top ten games are Wii or Nintendo DS titles, including plenty of evergreen entries like New Super Mario Bros. and Mario Kart Wii.

Here are July 2009's bestselling games, from the NPD Group.

01. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 508,200
02. NCAA Football 10 (Xbox 360) - 376,500
03. NCAA Football 10 (PS3) - 237,400
04. Wii Fit (Wii) - 164,300
05. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 156,600
06. Mario Kart DS (DS) - 132,200
07. Pokemon Platinum (DS) - 116,400
08. Fight Night Round 4 (Xbox 360) - 116,400
09. New Super Mario Bros. (DS) - 101,800
10. EA Sports Active (Wii) - 96,800

All that spending amounted to $436.99 million by U.S. consumers, off 26% from the previous year.

Anita Frazier, NPD analyst, has some bad news for some portions of the industry. "Of all genres, the music/dance genre has suffered the greatest declines this year, with nearly $390 million less revenues than the same time period last year," she says. "In order for the industry to come in flat or slightly up for the total year, the back five months of the year have to come in 11% (or more) higher than the last five months of last year."

That means Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 really has its work cut out for it.

"While year-to-date results are weak, there are some big titles set to be released over the next several months, including Madden this month, which should help spur sales," Frazier notes. "The worst comps should be behind us, and looking beyond August we have The Beatles: Rock Band, Halo 3: ODST, and of course, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to look forward to."

While Nintendo managed to dominate on the portable front—the Nintendo DS and DSi sold 538,900 units combined according to the NPD Group—the Wii didn't have a great July. It sold a little more than a quarter million units last month, less than half of what it did in July of 2008.

PSP and PlayStation 3 sales tell a similar story. Sony's handheld platform sold 122,800 in July, with its PS3 lagging just behind with 121,800 units sold. A stark change from last year, when the PlayStation 3 was enjoying better sales than the Xbox 360 during the summer. This July, however, Microsoft's console dipped only slightly in comparison to its competitors.

Will rumored hardware price drops on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 help reverse the video game industry's fortunes?

Here's how the hardware race went down in July, according to the NPD Group.

• Nintendo DS - 538,900
• Wii - 252,200
• Xbox 360 - 202,900
• PSP - 122,800
• PlayStation 3 - 121,800
• PlayStation 2 - 108,000

All told, U.S. consumers snapped up $280.94 million worth of video game hardware in July. That's a 37% drop from the year prior, likely ensuring that the industry won't come close to matching its record breaking revenue in 2008.

"Hardware sales have slowed considerably on nearly every platform," NPD analyst Anita Frazier points out. "The Xbox 360 is the only console system showing a unit sales increase year-to-date, while the NDS has the highest sales of all hardware platforms both for the month, and year-to-date."

Games like Atari's Ghostbusters failed to find a place in the top ten, as did the perennially bestselling Wii Play. Also missing were the PlayStation 3 versions of June's biggest games, which do appear in Gamasutra's NPD data highlighting the top twenty games from last month.

Looks like Ghostbusters: The Video Game just missed a top ten showing, kept from glory by Infamous for the PS3. While the UFC brawler and the PlayStation 3 version of Prototype represent, the bottom half of the top twenty is dominated by Nintendo titles, including the recent Punch-Out!! and long time bestseller Mario Kart DS.

See if your game of choice sold well at the full list.

Nintendo Again Dominates NPD Top 20 [Gamasutra]

The same was true for THQ's UFC 2009 Undisputed, which topped U.S. game sales in May. The mixed martial arts title moved another 338,300 units on the Xbox 360, KO-ing its competition, EA's Fight Night Round 4. But give credit to Sucker Punch's Infamous, though. The PlayStation 3 game's second month sales were better than its first, giving it a top ten showing.

EA Sports Active managed to outsell Wii Fit in its second month on the U.S. market, a win for the third-party publisher. EA also scored a Wii hit with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, which landed in fourth place. Also debuting strongly in the NPD top ten for June was THQ's Red Faction: Guerrilla, with the Xbox 360 version selling just shy of 200,000 units.

01. Prototype (X360) - 419,900
02. UFC 2009: Undisputed (X360) - 338,300
03. EA Sports Active (Wii) - 289,100
04. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (Wii) - 272,400
05. Wii Fit (Wii) - 271,600
06. Fight Night Round 4 (X360) - 260,800
07. Fight Night Round 4 (PS3) - 210,300
08. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 202,100
09. Red Faction: Guerrilla (X360) - 199,400
10. Infamous (PS3) - 192,700

Total software sales in the U.S. were $625.79 million, down from the $875.75 million in games people bought in June 2008.

NPD analyst Anita Frazier points out what's interesting, troubling and tout-worthy in June's game sales.

"Interestingly, this is the first month since its launch at retail 29 months ago that Wii Play has not been featured in the top 10 list for the month," Frazier notes. "That's an astonishing record for this industry."

Here's the semi-bad news.

"Prototype was the top selling title for the month, realizing roughly 600K units at retail across the two platforms. While this is solid performance for new IP, it's a relatively modest sales figure for any game capturing the top spot for the month."

Month-to-month, things improved over May's sales. But seeing big declines from the previous June were the Wii, PlayStation 3 and PSP, with only the Xbox 360 improving upon its performance from June of last year. The hardware contest finished as it has for the majority of 2009, with the Wii and Nintendo DS/DSi topping sales charts, the Xbox 360 taking third place, and a trio of PlayStation consoles occupying the bottom half of the list.

Thanks to the combined Nintendo DS Lite and DSi sales, Nintendo's portable platforms topped the chart with 766,500 units sold, a less frightening drop from the 783,000 sold in June 2008. On the other end of the scale, without the help of Metal Gear Solid 4 and Grand Theft Auto IV, PS3 sales dipped from 405,500 last June, to 164,700 this June.

Here are the NPD Group's video game hardware sales figures for the month of June, a 35 day reporting period.

• Nintendo DS - 766,500
• Wii - 361,700
• Xbox 360 - 240,600
• PlayStation 3 - 164,700
• PSP - 163,500
• PlayStation 2 - 152,700

U.S. consumers bought $382.62 million worth of consoles last month, compared to $617.25 million a year ago.

NPD analyst Anita Frazier weighs in...

"The Xbox 360 is the only platform to have realized a unit sales increase over last June. YTD, both the 360 and NDS have generated an increase in unit sales. Although many track month-to-month sales changes, comparisons to May must take into account that June is a five-week reporting month while May spanned four weeks."

"While Wii sales are down from last year, the platform is still realizing very strong sales month after month. Compared against historical performance of other systems this far into the console lifecycle, the unit sales performance is still strong."

Both the DS and Wii saw sizable hits from the previous month. April was boosted by the introduction of the Nintendo DSi, but second month sales were closer to pre-DSi figures. The DS and DSi—combined in the NPD Group's data—moved another 633,5000 units, more than double the Wii's 289,500.

The PlayStation 3 was the only console to see an increase in sales, moving 131,000 units in May versus 127,000 in April. The Xbox 360, however, held strong to its 175,000 sales from April, moving the same amount in May. Total PlayStation family hardware sales topped 348,000, but saw month-to-month declines on the PSP and PS2.

• Nintendo DS - 633,500
• Wii - 289,500
• Xbox 360 - 175,000
• PlayStation 3 - 131,000
• PlayStation 2 - 117,000
• PSP - 100,400

Total hardware spend over the 28 day May reporting period was $302.5 million, a 30% drop from the same period from last year. NPD analyst Anita Frazier didn't have a lot of positive things to say about the month in sales.

"The video games industry continues to struggle with difficult comparisons to last year, and this is the first month that industry sales have dipped below $1B since August 2007," Frazier said. "May is typically one of the lowest revenue-generating months in any given year for the industry in general."

April 2009 wasn't quite as storied, with Wii Fit topping the NPD Group's software sales chart with 471,000 units sold. That's far lower than the chart topper from the same month last year—GTA IV for the Xbox 360 sold 1.85 million copies then.

The rest of the list features some perennial bestsellers, with Mario Kart Wii, Wii Play and New Super Mario Bros. selling well enough to get top ten status. The only new game to appear is The Godfather II for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

01. Wii Fit (Wii) - 471,000
02. Pokemon Platinum (DS) - 433,000
03. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 210,000
04. Wii Play (Wii) - 170,000
05. The Godfather II (X360) - 155,000
06. Resident Evil 5 (X360) - 122,000
07. New Super Mario Bros. (DS) - 119,000
08. Mario Kart DS (DS) - 112,000
09. Guitar Hero Aerosmith (X360) - 110,000
10. The Godfather II (PS3) - 91,000

Total video game software sales for April 2009 were $510.74 million, down from the $660.10 million the industry brought in the previous April. Total sales for the year is now $2.72 billion, a 6% decline for the year.

"April would have been a great month to release a big new game because there weren't a lot of high profile new releases," noted NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "In fact, you can see that the top 10 list for the month includes many games we've seen on the list for months, if not years."

Frazier also notes: "The number of new releases this month is fairly comparable to what was introduced last April, but GTA IV (on both PS3 and the 360) sold nearly 1 million more units last April than the entire top 10 list did this year. April 2008 also featured the release of Mario Kart for Wii, which has remained a top-selling game for this past year, and is on this month's top 10 list as well. This really illustrates the impact of comparing against a month when there were several new blockbuster titles new to the market."

The new Nintendo handheld helped the DS platform move more than a million units in April, almost double what the Nintendo DS sold during March. The million-plus figure is also an improvement over the platform's performance from April 2008, when the DS sold a comparatively paltry 414,800 units in the United States.

Also showing signs of improvement was the $99 PlayStation 2, which sold 172,000 units last month, up from the 112,000 previous gen Sony consoles sold in March.

And that's the good news.

The bad news is that every other platform was down. Sales of the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 declined. That's both on a month-to-month and year-over-year sense.

Part of the year-to-year sales drop for home consoles can be attributed to this April's software releases. Last year, the effects of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart Wii and Grand Theft Auto IV were felt in the form of console sales spikes. This year, not so much.

Here's how April worked out.

• Nintendo DSi - 827,000
• Wii - 340,000
• Nintendo DS Lite - 215,000
• Xbox 360 - 175,000
• PlayStation 2 - 172,000
• PlayStation 3 - 127,000
• PSP - 116,000

"The big story for the month is the performance of portable game hardware sales as propelled by the release of Nintendo's DSi," commented NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "The NDS platform accounted for 31 percent of total industry unit sales this month across all categories."

Sorry, we don't have Nintendo DSi versus Nintendo DS sales figures. The NPD Group considers them a singular platform in their reporting. Update: But we did get those figures from Nintendo.

Video game hardware sales for the month of April 2009 were $391.63 million, down 8% from the $426.94 million in hardware spend from April 2008.

That puts total year-to-date hardware sales at $1.83 billion, down a percentage point from the same point last year.

The Xbox 360 version of the survival horror adventure walked away with the number one spot, moving 938,000 copies to U.S. consumers. Its PlayStation 3 counterpart moved 585,000, giving Sony's current generation platform three titles in the top ten, including MLB 09: The Show and Killzone 2. The latter of those saw sales close to that of its debut month, moving another 296,000 copies in March. Sony announced earlier today that Killzone 2 has sold 1 million copies worldwide since launch.

Chart regulars Wii Play and Mario Kart Wii combined for another half million in sales, with 2K Sports' MLB game rounding out the top ten. Missing from the top ten is Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, which looks to have sold on par with EEDAR's estimate of 200,000 copies or less. Guess we'll go with "risk" on that.

The top ten bestselling games in the U.S. for the month of March, according to the NPD Group are...

01. Resident Evil 5 (X360) - 938,000
02. Pokemon Platinum (DS) - 805,000
03. Halo Wars (X360) - 639,000
04. Resident Evil 5 (PS3) - 585,000
05. Wii Fit (Wii) - 541,000
06. MLB 09: The Show (PS3) - 305,000
07. Killzone 2 (PS3) - 296,000
08. Wii Play (Wii) - 281,000
09. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 278,000
10. MLB 2K9 (X360) - 205,000

Video game software sold to the tune of $792.83 million in March, a 17% drop year over year. That puts annual industry sales at $2.21 billion, which would indicate a drop in total revenue for the year.

And that's not too good.

Nintendo's Wii and DS platforms held strong as the best and second-best selling hardware in March, moving a combined 1.16 million-plus units last month. That's a drop from March 2008, when Nintendo hardware racked up 1.42 million in total Wii and DS sales, boosted by the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which shifted 2.7 million copies that month.

Hardware sales were down across the board for Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft, month-to-month. Year-over-year, however, the Xbox 360 actually saw an uptick in sales, moving 330,000 consoles last month as opposed to 262,000 during March of last year.

Here's how the U.S. console war went down in March, with the NPD Group reporting sales from 3/1/09 to 4/4/09.

• Wii - 601,000
• Nintendo DS - 563,000
• Xbox 360 - 330,000
• PlayStation 3 - 218,000
• PSP - 168,000
• PlayStation 2 - 112,000

NPD analyst Anita Frazier commented on the down month.

"If there was one area that surprised me this month, it was hardware sales," Frazier said. "While it's not unusual for March hardware sales to be lower than February, I thought we'd see higher unit sales on most platforms. The Xbox 360 was the only platform to achieve a year-over-year unit sales increase."

She also adds that the PlayStation 2, which saw a price drop on April 1 in the United States, should be reflected in April's sales.

"The PS2 price decrease occurred on April 1, so this month included only 4 days of sales as the new retail price. We would expect to see an increase in PS2 hardware sell-through in the April data."

The fitness software racked up 777,000 sales in January, a 22% drop from its December rate.

Wii Fit's impressive sales were followed by NPD software chart top ten regulars Wii Play and Mario Kart Wii, with Valve's Left 4 Dead landing appropriately in fourth place. The top ten was packed with nothing but titles for Microsoft and Nintendo hardware, with long-running bestsellers Mario Kart DS and New Super Mario Bros. continuing to sell at amazing rates.

01. Wii Fit (Wii) - 777,000
02. Wii Play (Wii) - 415,000
03. Mario Kart (Wii) - 292,000
04. Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360) - 243,000
05. Call of Duty: World at War (Xbox 360) - 243,000
06. Skate 2 (Xbox 360) - 199,000
07. Guitar Hero World Tour (Wii) - 155,000
08. New Super Mario Bros. (DS) - 135,000
09. Mario Kart DS (DS) - 132,000
10. Lord of the Rings: Conquest (Xbox 360) - 113,000

All said, Americans spent more than $676 million on video game software in January, up 10% over the previous January.

"Only two of the top 10 games this month were new releases," NPD analyst Anita Frazier points out. "The continued strength of games that have been in the market for some time clues us into just how many new consumers are coming into the industry. This broadening of the audience for gaming will help buoy the industry through these tough economic times, provided they have enough compelling content to keep them interested."

Nintendo still managed to move over a million pieces of hardware to U.S. consumers in January, with 679,200 Wiis and 510,800 Nintendo DSs snapped up by gamers, according to the NPD Group. That's a big shift from the company's performance in January 2008, in which post holiday sales translated to just 274,000 Wiis and 251,000 DSs sold, less than half what the company sold last month.

The Xbox 360, which finished dead last a year ago, made it to third place relatively easy, with more than 300,000 consoles sold.

Sony's performance wasn't as rosy. With a PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 both still at the same price point last year, the console manufacturer saw a drop in sales, putting PlayStation hardware in the bottom half of the list. All totaled, however, Sony hardware moved close to half a million sold through.

• Wii - 679,200
• Nintendo DS - 510,800
• Xbox 360 - 309,000
• PlayStation 3 - 203,200
• PSP - 172,300
• PlayStation 2 - 101,200

Total hardware spend was $445.4 million, a 17% increase, according to the NPD Group.

"Even in these tough economic times, the fact that total sales were able to realize a 13 percent increase in revenue speaks to the continued strength of video games as one of the leading entertainment industries in the U.S.," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

Gamasutra reveals December 2008's second-besters, with games like New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS and Link's Crossbow Training for the Wii making return appearances. And hey, there's Wii Music!

The Wii and DS dominate spots 11 through 20, with less traditional fare like Personal Trainer: Cooking and Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force outselling Madden and Shaun White Snowboarding.

What the top twenty doesn't feature much of are PlayStation platform games. Only Call of Duty: World at War and Guitar Hero: World Tour, the PlayStation 2 version, crack the list.

But can you blame the U.S. consumer? Once you've invested in Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force, who needs LittleBigPlanet?

NPD Top 20 Reveals Wii/DS Dominance, Single PS3 Entry [Gamasutra]

Nintendo highlighted that fact in its response to NPD sales data released yesterday, showing that Nintendo hardware sold more than 20 million units in the U.S. last year, with 132 million software units sold on the company's platforms. That's a considerable increase from the nearly 15 million consoles and portables it sold in 2007.

That increase in sales, Nintendo says, is 99% of the reason the video game industry saw revenues increase by $3.35 billion last year. That's a much smaller change than the game industry experienced from 2006 to 2007, we should note, 43% to 19% growth comparatively.

(The company included a handy — but visually ugly — pie chart to drive the point home, one that we tried to improve upon.)

With four of the best selling games in the U.S., according to the NPD Group, and the best-selling hardware by a large margin, we'd think it's pretty safe to say Nintendo is protecting the video game industry from succumbing to a terrible economy.

Will it be able to stave off an even worse 2009?