The Wall Street Journal quotes NPD data on December video game sales:
Sales of videogame software in the U.S. jumped 36% during the month compared to last year, according to data from NPD Group released late Thursday.
Sales of game hardware grew 17%.
The Nintendo Wii ruled the day, coming in with sales of 1.35 million units for the month compared with 1.26 million units for the Xbox 360 and 797,600 units for the PlayStation 3.
The Wii finished the year as the top-selling console, with nearly 6.3 million units sold domestically. That compares to 4.6 million units for the Xbox 360 and nearly 2.6 million units for the PS3 for the year, according to NPD data.
Among handheld devices, the Nintendo DS fared even better, with 8.5 million in sales for the year compared to 3.8 million for the Sony PSP.
For game software, sales totaled more than $8.6 billion in the U.S. for the year, up 34% from the previous year.
The top-selling game of the month was "Call of Duty 4" from Activision Inc., which moved nearly 1.5 million units. Activision also had the No. 3 title for the month with "Guitar Hero III" for the PlayStation 2, which moved 1.25 million units.
Nintendo's "Super Mario Galaxy" claimed the No. 2 slot with 1.4 million units, while its "Wii Play" title sold more than one million units for the No. 4 slot. "Madden NFL 08" from Electronic Arts Inc. saw a resurgence in December with more than 655,000 units sold for the PS2.
For the year, "Halo 3" from Microsoft was the best-selling game title with more than 4.8 million units moved in the U.S. "Wii Play" moved more than 4.1 million units for the year while "Call of Duty 4" sold three million units.
