November was indeed a great month for the video game industry in the U.S., as the NPD Group's report show software sales increased 41% and hardware sales went up 62% compared to the figures of last year in the same month. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare topped the list of best selling games, while the Nintendo DS took the hardware race.

Around 1.53 million units of Nintendo's handheld went off shelves, while the Sony PSP trailed with 567,000. On the console side, the Nintendo Wii leads with 981,000 units sold. Microsoft follows as the Xbox 360 clocked at 770,000, and the Sony PlayStation 3 comes in last after selling 466,000.

The Xbox 360 version of Activision's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare sold the most copies at 1.57 million, but Nintendo's Super Mario Galaxy is close behind with 1.12 million. Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed dethroned Gears of War as "the best-selling new IP at launch" according to an analyst from NPD, since it sold 980,000 copies on the Xbox 360 alone for November.

Overall, hardware and software sales increased 52% from the previous year, and the video game industry generated US$2.63 billion last month. In quick summary, here are NPD's findings:

Hardware

1. Nintendo DS - 1.53 million (from 458k)
2. Wii - 981K (from 519k)
3. Xbox 360 - 770K (from 366k)
4. PSP - 567K (from 286k)
5. PlayStation 2 - 496K (from 184k)
6. PlayStation 3 - 466K (from 121k)

1. Call of Duty 4 (Xbox 360, Activision) - 1.57 million
2. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, Nintendo) - 1.12 million
3. Assassin's Creed (Xbox 360, Ubisoft) - 980k
4. Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock w/guitar (PlayStation 2, Neversoft, Activision) 967k
5. Wii Play w/remote (Wii, Nintendo) - 564k
6. Mass Effect (Xbox 360, Microsoft) - 473k
7. Call of Duty 4 (PS3, Activision) - 444k
8. Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock w/guitar (Wii, Activision) - 426k
9. Halo 3 (Xbox 360, Microsoft) - 387k
10. Assassin's Creed (PS3, Ubisoft) - 377k