Majora's Mask 3D was last month's top-selling game

NPD Group's numbers are in from last month, and it shows overall strong sales in the gaming industry, with February having an 8-percent year-on-year increase. Sales for both hardware and games hit $955.6 million, with $378.2 million of that coming solely from hardware sales (a year-on-year 10-percent increase). Though software sales weren't quite that high, there was a 7-percent year-on-year increase with $338.9 million coming in. It was an overall good month for the industry, particularly Nintendo which saw high console and software sales.

Nintendo was a big player last month when it came to yearly growth, with its The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D being the number one selling game — a combined physical and digital total of 515,000 copies were sold. Evolve for the PS4, PC, and Xbox One came in second, and Dying Light for the PC, Xbox One, and PS4 was number three.

Meanwhile, and as far as hardware goes, Sony dominated the market with its PlayStation 4 console, which came in as February 2015's top-selling home gaming console when taking its software sales into account, as well. Nintendo also did exceptionally well with its 3DS handheld, pushing out 395,000 units last month when combining all the different versions — though, not surprisingly, the 3DS XL topped them all.

According to NPD, the Nintendo 3DS was primarily responsible for the portable gaming unit sales — there was a 153-percent increase in portable sales year-on-year. The Wii U is more mysterious, with Nintendo staying quiet about exact numbers — all we know is that its sales increased in excess of 20-percent year-on-year. Microsoft was the quietest of the bunch, saying only that sales spiked over last month in comparison to January (by 84-percent).

SOURCE: Venture Beat