North American and global games retailer GameStop has posted some strong numbers for its festive sales period, showing that the company enjoyed its best ever performance for the nine weeks ending January 3rd.

Sales for the firm totalled $2,856m, up 22.3 per cent from the $2,335m seen in the same period in 2007. Like-for-like sales increased by 10.2 per cent.

GameStop described sales of new titles as “outstanding”, with the segment growing 23.5 per cent. Games noted for their strong performance included Call of Duty: World at War, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Gears of War 2, WoW: Wrath of the Lich King and Wii Fit. On the hardware front, Xbox 360 and Wii were both described as “robust”.

“As expected, the consumer saw great entertainment value in video games in one of the most challenging holiday shopping seasons ever,” GameStop CEO Daniel DeMatteo stated.

“In fact, in the midst of a serious recession, our average transaction was higher this year than last. A major highlight of the period was that GameStop’s sales grew in every worldwide territory in which we operate; a clear indication that the GameStop model works everywhere.”

COO J. Paul Raines added: “Our store associates did a tremendous job of making sure all of our holiday shoppers found the right systems, games, and accessories to fill their wish lists. Their hard work and knowledge of our wide assortment of game products was critical in serving a record number of GameStop customers.”