Well, the economy may be the worst it's ever been since the Great Depression, but the U.S. video game industry has once again proven that it's weathering the storm pretty darn well. GameDaily BIZ has received the November data from The NPD Group, and total industry sales were a whopping $2.91 billion, up 10 percent. Year-to-date, total sales are now $16.04 billion, up 22 percent.

Software sales rose 11 percent to $1.45 billion while hardware sales increased 10 percent to $1.21 billion. Sales of accessories also climbed seven percent to $255.4 million.

From a hardware perspective, the winner was once again Nintendo... and it wasn't even close. Consumers raced to snatch up Wiis around the country, purchasing a total of 2.04 million. The DS also racked up 1.57 million unit sales. The Xbox 360, fueled by a fantastic performance by Gears of War 2, also did well, selling 836K units.

Sony's platforms meanwhile trailed the competition. The PS3 sold 378K units, the PSP 421K units and the PS2 206K units.

Looking at software, as expected Gears of War 2 led the pack, selling an impressive 1.56 million units. Globally, Microsoft has already confirmed sales of more than 3 million copies. Call of Duty: World at War was close behind Gears, and Wii Fit, Wii Play and Mario Kart followed, clearly boosted by the large adoption of Wii hardware during the month. It's also worth noting that although Wii Music sold just 81K in October, the title did bounce back in November a bit, making the top 10 chart.

Here's the top 10 chart (ranked by units) for November:

1. Gears of War 2 - Xbox 360 – Microsoft – 1.56 million
2. Call of Duty: World at War - Xbox 360 – Activision – 1.41 million
3. Wii Play w/ remote - Wii – Nintendo – 796K
4. Wii Fit - Wii – Nintendo – 697K
5. Mario Kart - Wii – Nintendo – 637K
6. Call of Duty: World at War - PS3 – Activision – 597K
7. Guitar Hero: World Tour - Wii – Activision – 475K
8. Left 4 Dead - Xbox 360 – EA – 410K
9. Resistance 2 - PS3 – Sony – 385K
10. Wii Music - Wii – Nintendo – 297K

* Note: chart includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware

Next page: exclusive commentary from NPD's industry analyst Anita Frazier