Research firm NPD Group said Thursday that total U.S. videogame industry revenues grew 13 percent in January to $1.33 billion, an accomplishment considering the worsening state of the economy.
NPD analyst Anita Frazier stated, "Even in these tough economic times, the fact that total sales were able to realize a 13 percent increase in revenue (compared to January '07) speaks to the continued strength of video games as one of the leading entertainment industries in the U.S."
Nintendo once again led the hardware charge, selling 679.2K Wiis (up 148 percent) and 510.8K units of its DS handheld (up 99 percent). Xbox 360 sold 309K, a 33 percent year-on-year increase for the month of January, while PS3 sold 202.3 units, down 25 percent.
Total hardware sales were up 17 percent to $445.4 million.
Nintendo also captured the top spots on the monthly software charts, with Wii Fit selling 777K, followed by Wii Play (with Remote) at 415K and Mario Kart Wii with 292K.
Total software sales were up 10 percent to $676.6 million.
Only two new software releases made the January chart, in the form of EA's Lord of the Rings Conquest and Skate 2. Frazier said the prevalence of previously-released software indicates that new consumers are entering the videogame fray.
She added, "At this point in the console lifecycle, we would expect to see a greater percentage of total industry sales generated by software sales, but the continued strength in hardware sales is changing that scenario a bit.
"This will have a long-term positive impact on the industry as the user base expands. Software sales still increased 10 percent over last January, indicating that continued strong hardware sales are not occurring at the expense of software sales."
The top 10 sellers are below:
Title Publisher Platform Rank # Units WII FIT NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 1 777K WII PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 2 415K MARIO KART W/WHEEL NINTENDO OF AMERICA WII 3 292K LEFT 4 DEAD ELECTRONIC ARTS 360 4 243K CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD 360 5 235K SKATE 2 ELECTRONIC ARTS 360 6 199K GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD WII 7 155K NEW SUPER MARIO BROS NINTENDO OF AMERICA NDS 8 135K MARIO KART DS NINTENDO OF AMERICA NDS 9 132K LORD OF THE RINGS: CONQUEST ELECTRONIC ARTS 360 10 113K (*includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)
Videogame accessory sales also grew 11 percent to $209.8 million.