December 2009 U.S. Sales Marks Best Month Ever

Nintendo dominates hardware and software sales.

by Jim Reilly

January 14, 2010 - December 2009 proved to be huge for the gaming industry.

Overall revenues climbed 4% year-over-year, marking the best month in the history of the industry. However, full-year sales came in 8% below last year due to the decline in sales throughout the middle of the year.

"December marks just the fourth month of the year where the industry saw an increase over last year," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "January and February were both up, and since the decline that began in March, only September experienced growth.

"The big sales this month, particularly on the hardware front, is a positive move for the industry headed into what will hopefully be a recovery year in 2010."

Wii took the #1 spot, selling 3.81 million consoles for the month, overtaking even the DS handheld. Meanwhile, the PlayStation 3 won a hard fought battle for #2, selling 1.36 to Xbox 360's 1.31 million.

Here's the hardware sales breakdown for the month:

PlayStation 2 333.2K
PlayStation 3 1.36M
PSP 654.7K
Xbox 360 1.31M
Wii 3.81M
Nintendo DS 3.31M

Overall software sales for the month show impressive numbers for Nintendo, with the company accounting for six of the top ten titles for December and selling nearly 10 million units combined. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 still clocked in at over 2 million for the month. Since its release last month, the game has now sold nearly 9 million units in the U.S. alone.

"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has become the fourth best-selling game of all time. In fact, 3 of the top 10 games of all time are Call of Duty games," added Frazier.

Here's the top 10 software sales breakdown for the month:

New Super Mario Bros. Wii - Nintendo - 2.82M
Wii Fit Plus* - Nintendo - 2.41M
Wii Sports Resort w/Wii Motion Pplus* - Wii - 1.79M
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2* - Xbox 360 - 1.63M
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2* - PlayStation 3 - 1.12M
Wii Play w/ Remote - Wii 1.01M
Mario Kart w/Wheel - Wii - 936.1K
Assassin's Creed II - Xbox 360 - 783.1K
Left 4 Dead 2 - Xbox 360 - 728.5K
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story - DS - 656.7K



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