The U.S. games industry was down 5% in January, but the pace has picked up again as February saw total sales climb 3% to $1.36 billion. Software actually dipped 5% to $601.4 million but hardware jumped 10% to $466.9 million. The category with the biggest growth was accessories (22% bump to $256.9 million), partially due to Kinect, which recently hit 10 million shipped. The Xbox 360 1600 points card was actually the top accessory.
Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops has once again taken the top spot on NPD's monthly chart, but Capcom's Marvel vs. Capcom 3 had a very healthy debut, securing second place. Bulletstorm, from Epic's People Can Fly (published by EA) also did well for itself considering that it's a brand-new IP. Epic President Mike Capps recently told IndustryGamers that the title will top 1 million and may have benefited a bit from the Fox News controversy.
Ubisoft, similar to the previous month, also fared well thanks to the dance category remaining hot. Just Dance 2 and Michael Jackson The Experience, placed third and ninth, respectively. It's worth noting that EA's popular Dead Space 2 slipped from third last month to fifth, but it's still doing well. Sony's Killzone 3 placed eighth on the chart, but it released late in February and only had a few days of sales.
Here's the top 10 for February from NPD:
