The NPD Group today released its year-end sales report. No matter how you construe the numbers, 2009 bowed out with a strong showing for all console hardware manufactures. Hardware sales were up a staggering 16 percent in December of last year, with Nintendo notably shifting an excess of 3.8 million Wii and 3.3 million DS units. Those are record numbers for both platforms as far as monthly sales go. Software sales took a slight tumble, down 7 percent from December of 2008.

Despite marginal gains over last December, industry sales declined from a full year-over-year perspective, recording $19.66 billion in sales compared to 2008’s $21.4 billion. Clearly the weakened economy dampened potential growth, but if last month’s figures are any indication, the road ahead looks convincingly bright for 2010. Hit the jump for the complete breakdown of sales figures.

Oh, and it looks like Reggie won that little bet. New Super Mario Bros. sold more units than Modern Warfare 2 on both PS3 and Xbox 360 combined. Impressive.

Dec-08    Dec-09    CHG

Video Games    $5.32B    $5.53B    4%
Video Games Hardware    $1.89B    $2.19B    16%
Video Games Software    $2.77B    $2.58B    -7%
Video Game Accessories    $663.9M    $760.2M    15%

Hardware Sales – December 09

Dec-09
PlayStation 2    333.2K
PlayStation 3    1.36M
PSP    654.7K
Xbox 360    1.31M
Wii    3.81M
Nintendo DS    3.31M

Software Sales – December 09

NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII    WII     NINTENDO OF AMERICA    Nov-09     2.82M     1
WII FIT PLUS*    WII     NINTENDO OF AMERICA    Oct-09     2.41M     2
WII SPORTS RESORT W/ WII MOTION PLUS*    WII     NINTENDO OF AMERICA    Jul-09     1.79M     3
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2*    360     ACTIVISION BLIZZARD     Nov-09     1.63M     4
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2*    PS3     ACTIVISION BLIZZARD     Nov-09     1.12M     5
WII PLAY W/ REMOTE    WII     NINTENDO OF AMERICA    Feb-07     1.01M     6
MARIO KART W/ WHEEL    WII     NINTENDO OF AMERICA    Apr-08     936.1K     7
ASSASSIN’S CREED II    360     UBISOFT    Nov-09     783.1K     8
LEFT 4 DEAD 2    360     ELECTRONIC ARTS    Nov-09     728.5K     9
MARIO & LUIGI: BOWSER’S INSIDE STORY    NDS     NINTENDO OF AMERICA    Sep-09     656.7K     10

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