US sales body NPD has released its figures for games industry sales in February in North America, and they show a massive 47 per cent increase in software sales and 19 per cent hike in hardware sales – with total national sales hitting a massive $1.33 billion.

Breaking that number down, software sales, which were lead once again by Activision’s Call of Duty 4, hit $668.7 million, hardware sales reached $480 million whilst accessory sales totalled $185.3 million.

As Microsoft correctly predicted yesterday, Xbox 360 didn’t fare too well when it comes to the hardware race.

Nintendo’s DS was the outright winner, selling 587,000 units, followed by home-based cousin the Wii with sales of 432,000. PS2 outperformed its next-gen rivals to capture third place with sales of 351,000.

PS3 was the fourth best selling machine, shifting 280,000 units, whilst fifth place Xbox 360 sold 254,000 units. PSP was not far behind, though, with sales of 243,000.