Nintendo announced recently that their hardware sales have been through the roof, with the Nintendo DS enjoying its best calendar year to date and the Wii system selling 3.8 million units — a record in the U.S. In fact, out of all the Wii consoles currently in the United States, a fifth of those were sold in November and December of last year. Yeah, I’m not seeing how the recession isn’t totally over.

With more than 27.2 million Wii units “in the wild,” well, it only makes sense that software also sold like hotcakes. For December alone, six Nintendo titles found themselves in the top ten. These are: New Super Mario Bros. Wii at No. 1 with more than 2.8 million sold, Wii Sports Resort at No. 2 with more than 1.7 million sold, Wii Fit Plus with the Wii Balance Board accessory at No. 3 with more than 1.7 million sold, Wii Play at No. 6 with more than 1.0 million sold, Mario Kart Wii at No. 7 with more than 936,000 sold and Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story for Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi at No. 10 with more than 656,000 sold.

That’s a lot of little plastic boxes for one month.

Nintendo did even better in the year-long numbers with seven games in the top ten. New Super Mario Bros. Wii made it to the number 2 spot (that’s a LOT of games sold in two months!), both Wii Fit versions found a place, and so did the rest of the usual suspects: Wii Sports Resort, Mario Kart Wii, and Pokemon (because any time a Pokemon game comes out, the kiddies…and the adulties…go nuts).

Anyone else notice that no third-party games made it on that list? (Is that unexpected? No. Totally expected.)

Nintendo was nice enough to provide this little chart, listing the hardware top-sellers for the past ten years. (Here’s a hint: they’re on top for seven of those years.) Click it if you want to see it full size.

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