U.S. retail sales of video games soared by 57 percent to $1.7 billion in March led by Nintendo's games and systems.

Video game hardware and software sales, in March, were $1.7 billion with Nintendo's Wii console in the lead.

Video game software sales increased by 63 percent, from March 2007, to $945.6 million.

Nintendo's Super Smash Bros; 'Brawl' for the Wii was the month's top selling game with 2.7 million units sold.

Trailing in the second place was 'Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 from Ubisoft with 752,300 units, and Electronic Arts Inc.'s 'Army of Two' settled in the third position with 606,100 units.

Hardware sales rose by 46 percent to $551.3 million from $377.9 million, with Nintendo's Wii and portable DS outselling other systems.

The data released by a research company, NPD, showed that Americans bought 721,000 Wii's during March, 67 percent more than in February.

The DS came second with 698,000 units sold while Sony's handheld PSP settled in the third place with 297,000.

NPD said in a report that Xbox Live points and subscription cards were among the top selling accessories during March along with the PS3 wireless controller.

The new 'Grand Theft Auto IV' games, which go on sale on April 29, are forecasted to boost sales for Microsoft's Xbox 360 and PS3.

Retail sales Nintendo Video Microsoft