Ah, the monthly NPD report for the video game industry in America. If you’ve never noticed before, it’s always apparently good news for everyone involved. Even if their competitors outsell them considerably during the month, a company will find a way to give out a good press release. Every company gives out a press release stating how there sales were better than last month or last year. It’s a standard business practice, but it’s still good for a laugh every now and then.

Here are the big numbers in a nutshell. Overall industry sales, which includes hardware, software, and accessories, was at $1.25 billion dollars. Nintendo’s Wii was the best selling system of the month as usual, with 274k units sold during the month. Sony’s PS3 sold 269k, outselling Microsoft’s Xbox 360 for the first time, a major victory for Sony. The Xbox 360 sold 230k units during the month, perhaps knowing they would be behind the competition when Microsoft announced they had supply issues right before the NPD report came out. On the handheld side, the DS sold 251k units while the PSP sold 230k.

Of no surprise to anyone, the Xbox 360 continues to lead in software sales, with 4 of the top 10 games sold in the month. The software side of the industry alone brought in $549.5 million, an increase of 11 percent from Jan. 07. My detective work concluded that Rock Band and Guitar Hero bundles might have a thing or two to do with that. Again, Call of Duty 4 was the best selling game of the month, with 330k discs sold for the 360 in January. Here is the full list of the top 10 software sales for the month.

1. 360 Call of Duty 4, Activision, November–330.9K
2. Wii Play w/ Remote, Nintendo, Feb–298.1K
3. Wii Guitar Hero III, Activision, Oct–239.6K
4. 360 Rock Band, MTV Games/EA, Nov–183.8K
5. 360 Guitar Hero III, Activision, Oct–182.7K
6. Wii Super Mario Galaxy, Nintendo, Nov–172K
7. 360 Burnout Paradise, EA, Jan–144.1K
8. PS3 Call of Duty 4, Activision, Nov–140K
9. NDS Mario Party, Nintendo, Nov–138.5K
10. NDS Mario and Sonic at the Olympics, Sega, Jan–133K

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4. Best seller of 2007 both a good and bad sign
5. Activision says Tony Hawk to innovate to counter Skate