Nintendo sells 720,000 Wii consoles in March

According to sales data released by the NPD Group, Nintendo sold more than 720,000 Wii consoles in March - the highest monthly sales total to date outside of the holiday months of November and December.

Nintendo also sold through 698,000 DS handhelds during the month, bringing the lifetime total sales in the US to more than 19 million units since it was launched in 2004.

"Nintendo systems represented 58 per cent of all video game hardware sold in March in the United States" said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales and marketing.

"We expect our momentum to continue with big upcoming game launches like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit."

Microsoft, meanwhile, sold 262,000 Xbox 360 consoles in March - reclaiming the number two position it had lost to the PS3 over the past few months. The company noted that, going into march, some US retailers still experienced console shortages, but it expects retailers to be fully stocked in time for the launch of GTA IV.

In a statement, Microsoft said: "Consumers continue to make the ultimate vote for Xbox 360 as the console of choice by investing USD 9.4 billion to date this lifecycle in the Xbox 360 experience, far outpacing that of other game consoles."

Sony, meanwhile, sold 257,000 PS3 consoles and 297,000 PSP handhelds in March - the latter of which represents a sales increase of 65 per cent growth year-over-year.

For the PS3, SCEA said that March sales growth was over 98 per cent year-over-year. It also noted that more than 1.9 million PS3 software units were sold - representing year-over-year growth of 139.2 per cent.

While PlayStation 2 sales were down significantly from the prior month, Sony still managed to sell 216,000 units of the eight year-old console.