According to market research firm NPD Group, Nintendo sold more than 1 million Wiis in barely six weeks on the market. Microsoft sold 1.1 million Xbox 360s in December.

The leading console for the holiday period wasn't part of the new wave. Sony sold 1.4 million of the older PlayStation 2 consoles in December, compared with 491,000 of the PlayStation 3s.

The figures indicate that $12.5 billion worth of video game hardware, software and accessories was sold in 2006. That's a new record.

As for games, "Madden NFL 07" for the PlayStation 2 was tops, with nearly 3 million sold. The runners-up were Nintendo's "New Super Mario Brothers" for the DS handheld and "Gears of War" for the Xbox 360.