Retail research firm NPD Group has released sales figures for game related hardware and software for the month of February, revealing a rather robust increase in sales for the game industry. The big mover and shaker of the month was the Nintendo DS, which sold 485,000 units - followed by the Wii with 335,000 units, the PS2 with 295,000, Xbox 360 with 228,000, the PSP with 176,000, the GBA with 136,000, the PS3 with 127,000 and the GameCube with 24,000. Looking at these numbers you can see why the February hardware sales were up a 98 percent for the month. The Nintendo DS and the Wii continue to dominate the market, along with the aging PS2.

On the software front, Microsoft's third-person action game, Crackdown, took the month with 427,000 copies sold. Nintendo's Wii Play with the controller bundle moved 371,000 copies. In the rest of the top ten - Diddy Kong Racing for DS moved 262,000; Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for Wii moved 130,000; Guitar Hero 2 with guitar controller for the PS2 moved 130,000; Gears of War for Xbox 360 sold 119,000; Major League Baseball 2K7 for Xbox 360 sold 113,000; Lost Planet: Extreme Condition for Xbox 360 moved 111,000; WarioWare: Smooth Moves for Wii moved 109,000 and NBA Street Homecourt for Xbox 360 moved 102,000 units in Fenruary. - kotaku.com .