Independent marketing group NPD has reported that U.S. sales of video game hardware and software amounted to $1.18 billion in January, of which hardware sales fell 25 percent to about $378 million while video game sales rose 11 percent to top $610 million.

"Given the huge number of hardware systems sold in December, inventory shortages could be the biggest contributor to the softer-than-expected sales," NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in the company's report.

Activision managed to snatch the top video game sales spot, with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare selling 331,000 copies for Microsoft's Xbox 360 and 140,000 for the Sony PlayStation 3. However, the most profitable appears to be the Xbox 360 version of Rock Band, which sold 183,800 copies and accounted for $30 million in sales for the month because each copy costs about $170.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock snapped up the third (Wii) and the fifth (Xbox 360) places, while the Mario franchise is still kicking with three spots in the top ten: Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) in sixth place, Mario Party DS in ninth place and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS) in the last spot in the top ten.

Video games sold as follows, per NDP:

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat (Xbox 360, Activision): 331,000
2. Wii Play with Wii Remote (Nintendo Wii, Nintendo): 298,000
3. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Nintendo Wii, Activision): 240,000
4. Rock Band (Xbox 360, MTV Games): 184,000
5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360, Activision): 183,000
6. Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo Wii, Nintendo): 172,000
7. Burnout Paradise (Xbox 360, EA): 144,000
8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat (Sony PS3, Activision): 140,000
9. Mario Party DS (Nintendo DS, Nintendo): 139,000
10. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (Nintendo DS, Sega): 133,000

(all figures are units sold)