Santa Mario kept busy in December

We had already heard from Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata that the Japanese giant was looking at record December console sales figures this year in the US, but now we've got cold hard NPD sales numbers to see just how many Wiis and DS's were shifted.

Turns out that Iwata's "approaching 3M sold" Wii estimate earlier this month was conservative. Not only did the console chew up that milestone and spit it back out, it threatened to maul the 4 million mark as well by selling 3.81M consoles. The home console silver medal went to the PlayStation 3 with 1.36M units sold, followed closely by Microsoft's 1.31M Xbox 360 units. The PlayStation Portable moved 654.7K handhelds while the PlayStation 2 netted a respectable 333.2K sold as well.

Quick math tells us that the Wii outsold all of those combined by around 150K. Counting in the 3.31M sold of the various incarnations of the DS and that is one big Nintendo-flavored Pac chart.

Nintendo dominated the software sales chart as well, taking the top spot by moving 2.82M units of New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

1. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) – Nintendo – 2.82M
2. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) – Nintendo – 2.41M
3. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) – Nintendo – 1.79M
4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360) – Activision – 1.63M
5. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Playstation 3) – Activision – 1.12M
6. Wii Play w/ Wii Remote (Wii) – Nintendo – 1.01M
7. Mario Kart Wii w/ Wheel (Wii) – Nintendo – 936.1K
8. Assassin's Creed II (Xbox 360) – Ubisoft – 783.1K
9. Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360) – EA – 728.5K
10. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS) – Nintendo – 656.7K

It's pretty safe to say what people pick up alongside their new Wii.

It's important to note that software that is bundled with hardware isn't tracked on this chart, so sales of the Xbox 360 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 bundle are not included. It's possible that New Super Mario Bros. Wii outsold Modern Warfare 2's multiple platform sales, but without that data we can't say for sure.

And look at Mario Kart Wii go after all this time. Vroom indeed!