December NPD: DS sells over 3 million, '08 sales reach
$21.33 billion

post from Joystiq on 15 January 2009 07:43:00 PM. © Joystiq

Filed under: Nintendo DS, Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PSP, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360

That's right, we just used "billion" and "million" in a headline. Clearly, we're writing about the game industry's North American performance during the month marked by Christmas trees, torn wrapping paper and men wearing fake beards. According to the latest NPD sales results, December saw consumers spending $5.29 billion on gaming, resulting in a grand 2008 total of $21.33 billion -- that's up 19 percent from 2007.

And here comes the paragraph where we tell you about Nintendo's unstoppable success. America bought 3.04 million DS systems in December and another 2.15 million Wii consoles. The best selling game, not only for the month but the entire year, was on Wii (and bundled with a controller). You win again, Wii Play.

As for Microsoft, the Xbox 360 did a respectable 1.44 million units, nearly double that of the PlayStation 3, which sold 726K. The PSP fared better with 1.02 million sold, and the trusty PlayStation 2 still managed to shift 410k units. Don't feel bad about its position at the bottom of the chart, though. Everyone gets a green arrow for Christmas!

- DS: 3.04m