Xbox 360 has continued to defy expectations by posting yet another monthly annual sales increase, with January sales of Xbox 360 climbing by 33 per cent year-on-year to hit 309,000 units according to NPD.

January was also the strongest ever month for the firm’s online platform Xbox Live, which saw a record number of new users sign up to the service. Microsoft’s Halo Wars demo was also a record breaker, seeing 2m downloads in its first week.

In addition, the average number of movies watched on the firm’s North American-only Netflix film rental service was 16.

360 also claimed five of the NPD’s top selling games for the month, with EA’s Left 4 Dead, Skate 2 and Lord of the Rings: Conquest, Activision’s Call of Duty: World at War and Microsoft’s Gears fo War 2 continuing to perform at retail.

Third party game sales reached $139m for the month. Microsoft adds that life-to-date third party titles are higher on Xbox 360 than PS3 or Wii, and that the console currently has 132 titles with a MEtacritic score of 80 or higher. This compares to 90m on PS3 and 42 on Wii.