Mario Party! Wii Drives Strong Video Game Sales

Video game software sales grew 11% in November versus the same month last year, while hardware sales gained 7%, driven by demand for the Nintendo Wii, according to new data from market research firm NPD . On the hardware side, the story was all about the Wii, which saw sales jump 108% to 2.04 million units. The Microsoft Xbox 360 sold 836,000 units, up 8%. The Sony Playstation 3 sold 378,000 units, down 19%. Handheld sales fell 9% versus a year earlier. “Nintendo is killing the category again this season,” Kaufman Bros. analyst Todd Mitchell said in a research note this morning. He notes that Nintendo is taking 60%-65% of the Wii software market, and will likely have the five top-selling games in 2008. Evan Wilson, an analyst at Pacific Crest , notes this morning Activision Blizzard (ATVI) game sell-through fell 6%; while sell-through at Electronic Arts (ERTS) rose 18%; Take-Two (TTWO) sales rose 15%; THQ (THQI) sales declined 14%. Here’s a list of the top ... (link)