Research released Friday reveals that the Electronic Arts game called Madden NFL 09 was the top selling video game in the United States in August, with more than 2.18 million units sold. Moreover, that same month, video game software sales registered an increase by 13%, hardware sales going up by 3%, market researcher NPD Group informed. The figures show an overall gain of 9 % compared to the same period in 2007. Nevertheless, this is the first time when the sales have been below 10 percent in the last two years and a quarter. Other top video game picks included Wii Fit, Guitar Hero: On Tour, Soulcalibur IV and Too Human. The latter two sold 174,000 units and 168,200 units, respectively.

Madden NFL 09 sold better on the Xbox 360 than on Sony’s PS3 and PS2 combined.

In terms of hardware, in August, Microsoft sold 195,200 Xbox 360 units in August, while Sony sold a total of 185,400 PlayStation 3 consoles. Nintendo’s Wii sold 453,000 units, outselling their two main competitors on the market combined. Despite this, the sales have gone down 18% from the previous month for the company. Sales are expected to further rise, due mainly to the announcement made by Microsoft that it would be cutting down the prices for their Xbox 360 products. Video game software sales brought in revenue of over $550 million in August, which translates as a drop down from July, when sales totaled $591 million.