Sales of Microsoft's Xbox 260s in the U.S. in February was up 53 percent from the same month last year, giving the company its biggest non-holiday sales month sales apart from September 2007 when Halo 3 was launched, according NPD Group research firm.

Microsoft sold 391,000 Xbox 360s, even though Nintendo's Wii continues to dominate the market, with 753,000 units sold in the U.S. during the month. In third place was Sony's PlayStation 3 with 276,000 units sold.

In its news release, NPD looked on the bright side of the Sony results, pointing out that the PS3 saw the largest percentage increase out of the three consoles when compared to January. However, compared with February 2008 sales, the PS3 was down by about 2 percent.

In spite of tougher economic times, the overall industry sales of hardware, software and accessories made $1.47 billion for the month, a 10 percent increase over February 2008.

The U.S. video games industry continues to post strong year-over-year comps despite the tough economy, NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a news release issued by the research firm. Unit sales increased even more than dollar sales did, reflecting a slightly lower average retail price for all categories as compared to last year.

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