NPD Group’s release of sales figures in gaming industry for March went beyond analysts’ expectations, showing a 57 percent increase compared to the same period last year. The figures for gaming software have totaled a little under $1 billion, up 63 percent compared to March 2007, while gaming hardware sales jumped 46 percent to $551 million and accessories sales went up 58 percent to $220 million.

“You’d never know that the U.S. economy was under distress by looking at the video games industry sales figures,” NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a statement. “Year-to-date growth is a rock-solid 27 percent through March 2008.”

Wii was again top of the list with 721,000 units sold in the United States, undoubtedly influenced by new releases such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which sold 2.7 million copies. Nintendo keeps a strong position in hardware sales with Nintendo DS coming up second (698,000 units sold), followed by PlayStation Portable (297,000 units), Xbox 360 (262,000 units), PlayStation 3 (257,000 units) and PlayStation 2 (216,000 units).

"March has shown us that the industry is finally large enough to support numerous AAA titles during an off-season month and going forward, publishers need not fear a PS3/Xbox 360 title hindering their Wii title (or vice versa)," analyst Jesse Divnich from Electronic Entertainment Design and Research told reporters. "March has proven that the PS3/Xbox 360 and the Wii can co-exist perfectly together."

The top-selling gaming software included the Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii, Nintendo) with 2.7 million units, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (Xbox 360, Ubisoft) with 752,000 units, Army of Two (Xbox 360, EA) 606,100 units, Wii Play w/ Remote (Wii, Nintendo) which continued the strong sales, with 409,000 units. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii, Activision) came seventh with 264,100 units, while Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360, Activision) came ninth, with 237,000 units sold.