Nintendo Sees Jan. Sales Growth

By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 2/13/2009

Redmond, Wash — Video game sales appear to be rising above the economic storm following an NPD Group report showing U.S. games sales rose 9 percent in January as consoles sales increased 2 percent from January 2008.

Nintendo continued to dominate the field, with 20 of the top 30 games in January being sold for Nintendo gaming systems. Five of those games finished in the top 10, NPD said.

Sales of Nintendo’s Wii console and its handheld Nintendo DS system accounted for 5.9 million units, representing nearly half of all consoles sold in January, according to Nintendo.

Wii sales in January reached nearly 680,000 units, while sales of the Nintendo DS handheld game player topped 510,000 units in the month.

Since its launch in November 2006, the Wii system has sold more than 18 million units in the United States, Nintendo said. The Nintendo DS has sold more than 28 million units in the United States since its launch in November 2004.

Sales of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 sold 309,000 units in the month, while Sony’s PlayStation 3, sold 203,200 units and its PlayStation portables sold 172,300 units.

As for video game titles, the top five titles in order were: Wii Fit (777,000 units), Wii Play (415,000 units), Mario Kart (292,000 units), Left 4 Dead (243,000 units) and Call of Duty: World at War (235,000 units).