According to official NPD figures reported on Next-gen.biz, software sales benefited from huge increases across all sectors in the US last month.

Hardware saw the largest year-on-year increase with sales surging 93 per cent from the same period last year, largely off the back of the DS and Wii. Nintendo’s consoles sold 508,000 units and 259,000 units respectively. Microsoft also managed to increase the user-base of their next-generation console by 199,000, with PS3 shifting 130,000 units.

Overall March saw US games sales, including games, hardware and accessories, reach $1.1 billion dollars compared to $818m the year before. The figures surprised analysts who had been expecting year-on-year sales to be static.

Software saw a 15 per cent increase over like-for-like sales, with big names including God of War II, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 and Guitar Hero II being the biggest sellers of the month with combined sales of 1.5 million.