Port Washington, N.Y. - Once again bucking the overall economic downturn, U.S. video game sales were up 10% in November, to $2.91 billion, while year-to-date sales are up 22%, to $16.04 billion compared with $13.14 billion at the same point a year ago. "One reason for the continued strength of the industry compared to other forms of entertainment comes from a number of sources," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "Certainly, the expanded audience for gaming due to the availability of a wider variety of compelling content is a strong contributor. Economic factors are also at play given that a video game is a relatively inexpensive form of entertainment for the hours of value it provides. Our Consumer Spending Indicator shows that video games is the category consumers are least likely to cut back on this holiday."

The Nintendo Wii far outsold the competition, moving 2.04 million consoles in November, compared to 836,000 Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) Xbox 360s and 387,000 Sony (NYSE: SNE) PlayStation 3s.

Nintendo also sold 1.57 million DS handhelds, besting rival Sony's PSP, which sold 421,000 units during the month.

The two top-selling games in November were the Xbox 360 titles "Gears of War 2" (1.56 million units) and "Call of Duty: World at War" (1.41 million).

Games for the Wii took half of the spots in the top ten, including Nintendo's own "Wii Play," "Wii Fit," "Mario Kart" and "Wii Music."

Activision Blizzard's (NASD: ATVI) "Guitar Hero World Tour" for the Wii took sixth place, selling 475,000 copies, while its "Wrath of the Lich King" expansion for the "World of Warcraft" multiplayer PC game sold over 1.4 million units during its debut month at U.S. retail, and an impressive 2.8 million copies worldwide on its launch day alone.

Related Links:
http://www.npd.com