Nintendo Propels Industry to Record Month

US - Following record sales of 2 million Wii consoles in November, Nintendo sales led the way to a new industry-wide record in December: $5 billion in revenue, the largest single month in video game history.

According to NPD, December sales were up 9 percent year-over-year, and sales for 2008 were up 19 percent.

Nintendo’s handheld, the DS, sold 3.04 million units, almost as many as the Wii and Xbox 360 combined (2.15 million and 1.44 million, respectively). Regarding software, the Wii’s console bundle, Wii Play and the Wii remote, sold 1.46 million units in December alone.

December 2008 Sales

1. Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) - 1.46 million

2. Call of Duty: World at War (Treyarch/Activision, Xbox 360) - 1.33 million

3. Wii Fit (Nintendo, Wii) - 999,000

4. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii) - 979,000

5. Guitar Hero: World Tour (Neversoft/Activision, Wii) - 850,000

6. Gears of War 2 (Epic Games/Microsoft, Xbox 360) - 745,000

7. Left 4 Dead (Valve/EA, Xbox 360) - 629,000

8. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo, NDS) - 540,000

9. Call of Duty: World at War (Treyarch/Activision, PS3) - 533,000

10. Animal Crossing: City Folk (Nintendo, Wii) - 497,000

2008 Full Year Sales

1. Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) - 5.28 million

2. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii) - 5.00 million

3. Wii Fit (Nintendo, Wii) - 4.53 million

4. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo, Wii) - 4.17 million

5. Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar/Take-Two, Xbox 360) - 3.29 million

6. Call of Duty: World at War (Treyarch/Activision, Xbox 360) - 2.75 million

7. Gears of War 2 (Epic Games/Microsoft, Xbox 360) - 2.31 million

8. Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar/Take-Two, PS3) - 1.89 million

9. Madden NFL 09 (EA Tiburon/EA, Xbox 360) - 1.87 million

10. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo, NDS) - 1.65 million

(Charts from gamasutra.com)