US game sales for the month of December were huge. $2.75 billion in sales in December alone! Millions upon millions of games and gaming consoles bought! Who benefited most from the end-of-year December shopping rush? Why, Nintendo of course.

Nintendo revealed that they were able to flog over three million DS units and over two million Wii units during December in the US, taking the grand total of DS and Wii units sold during 2008 to 9.95 million and 10.17 million respectively. Nintendo also pointed out that, during 2008, Wii sales represented 55% of all ‘next-generation’ console sales, while the DS accounted for 72% of the portable market.

Nintendo platforms also hold six places in the top ten best selling games during December, bringing the total number of pieces of software sold on Nintendo platforms during 2008 to roughly 132 million games. Further trumpeting their own success, Nintendo has said that the top four best selling games of 2008 were all on Nintendo Wii (and first party), namely Wii Play, Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit and Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing, Cammie Dunaway said:

“Our type of entertainment has now moved to the point where there is no longer a question that if you offer consumers an expanded definition of what a video game can be, and deliver that idea with quality and affordability in mind, millions of new people will start playing video games. Concepts like Wii Fit, Guitar Hero, and Rock Band never would have seemed feasible just a few years ago, and now they’re driving growth for our the entire industry.”

Congratulations to Nintendo!