Nintendo continued to dominate rivals in the month of February, with new data showing the game-maker selling nearly twice as many game-consoles in the second month of the year.

The company sold 432,000 of its Wii game-console according to market-researcher NPD Group. Sony's Playstation 3 came in second, and Microsoft's Xbox 360 third with 280,800, and 254,600 units sold, respectively.

Sales benefited from an increased supply of Wii and Xbox units, according to analysts Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets.

Next month, sales are expected to continue to rise as highly anticipated games such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii and Grand Theft Auto IV for the PS3 and Xbox 360 are due.

Sony's PS2 sold 351,800 consoles, a 19 percent increase from the year earlier, NPD said.

Wiis were in short supply in January after Nintendo diverted shipments to Japan for that country's holiday season, Nintendo said last month.

In February, Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo began increasing U.S. shipments to prepare for Smash Bros.,'' Fils-Aime said.

Xbox 360s also were scarcer in January because of higher-than- expected demand during the U.S. holiday season.

Overall, sales of video games, consoles and accessories jumped 34 percent to $1.33 billion from $992.2 million a year earlier. Console sales rose 19 percent to $480 million, video-game sales increased 47 percent to $668.7 million and accessories gained 36 percent to $185.3 million.

Japan Sony Microsoft Nintendo