NPD: DS and 360 dominate

Nintendo DS was the best selling console of November in the US, according to NPD.

Nintendo said its family of DS products sold 1.5 million units last month, driven by the new red SKU.

Meanwhile, Xbox 360 was the biggest selling home console by shifting 1.37 million units – an incredible 68 per cent rise over the same period in 2009.

In fact, Xbox software and hardware accounted for 40 per cent of total industry sales, driven by the success of Kinect – which is already the biggest selling accessory of the year.

Sony has yet to reveal its sales data for the month. 1.27m Wii consoles were shifted during November, half of which were sold during the Thanksgiving weekend.

"The best-selling system overall was the Nintendo DS," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.

"It was a high/low story for the DS this month with the new red SKU providing the most sales and the white, lower-priced SKU being no.2. It appears the DS attracted two pockets of consumers: those looking for a unique limited-edition product and those looking for value."

"We expect a big jump in sales in November due to seasonality and the influence of holiday, but the change this November over October is bigger across most platforms than it was last November. This could point to the impact of aggressive retail promotions during the critical Black Friday week."