US sales tracking firm NPD has revealed that December 2009 has become the videogame industry’s best ever month in terms of sales in the US, generating $5.53 billion in console retail game market revenues – a 4% year-over-year increase from $5.32 billion in December of 2008.

Software sales saw a 7% decline, down to $2.58 billion, while hardware sales offset this drop with a 16% increase, to $2.19 billion, while accessories rose 15% to $760.2 million.

NPD analyst Anita Frazier, Anita Frazier commented:

“December marks just the fourth month of the year where the industry saw an increase over last year. 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.”

On the hardware front for December 2009, Nintendo’s abject dominance in the marketplace was certainly felt by the company’s competitors as it flooded the market with over 7 million of its consoles (please bear in mind that this is in the US alone), Sony managed to flog 2 million of its consoles, while Microsoft sold a little over 1 million Xbox 360s.

In terms of software for December 2009, New Super Mario Bros. reigned supreme with a whopping 2.82 million units sold for the month (… just let that number simmer in your mind for a second…) followed by Wii Fit Plus, Wii Sports Resort, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox 360, and then the PS3 version of the same.

The full hardware and software sales listing for the month of December 2009 in the US follows below:

Hardware Sales

• Wii: 3.81 million
• Nintendo DS: 3.31 million
• PlayStation 3: 1.36 million
• Xbox 360: 1.31 million
• PSP: 654 700
• PlayStation 2: 333 200

Software Sales

• 1.) New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo – Wii) - 2.82 million
• 2.) Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo - Wii) - 2.41 million
• 3.) Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo - Wii) - 1.79 million
• 4.) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward, Activision - Xbox 360) - 1.63 million
• 5.) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward, Activision - PS3) - 1.12 million
• 6.) Wii Play (Nintendo - Wii) - 1.01 million
• 7.) Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo - Wii) - 936 100
• 8.) Assassin’s Creed II (Ubisoft Montreal - Xbox 360) - 783,100
• 9.) Left 4 Dead 2 (Valve, Electronic Arts - Xbox 360) - 728 500
• 10.) Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (Alphadream, Nintendo – DS) - 656 700

(Figures include Collector’s Edition and non-hardware bundles)

See what Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft think of all this, and read about the overall performance of the US retail console game market in 2009 over here.

Source: NPD