April 17 (Bloomberg) -- Nintendo Co. retained its lead in U.S. video-game console sales with 721,000 Wii players purchased in stores last month, according to NPD Group Inc.

Retailers sold 262,000 Xbox 360 consoles by Microsoft Corp. in March and 257,000 of Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3. Sales of games rose 63 percent, Port Washington, New York-based NPD said today in an e-mailed statement.

Wii sales almost tripled, benefiting from Nintendo's release last month of ``Super Smash Bros. Brawl,'' which sold 1.4 million copies in its first week in stores. Kyoto-based Nintendo probably increased shipments to the U.S. to meet demand generated by the game, Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles, said in an April 14 report.

``You'd never know that the U.S. economy was under distress by looking at the video games industry sales figures,'' NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in the statement. ``Across hardware, software, and accessories, the Wii contributed the most to total industry sales.''

``Super Smash Bros. Brawl'' was the top title, with 2.7 million copies sold, NPD said.

Industry sales are likely to rise again this month with the release of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.'s ``Grand Theft Auto IV'' and Nintendo's ``Mario Kart Wii,'' Pachter wrote.

Tokyo-based Sony's PS2 sold 216,000 consoles, NPD said, a 23 percent drop from the 280,000 reported a year earlier.

Supplies

Wiis were in short supply in January after Nintendo diverted shipments to Japan for that country's holiday season, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said during an interview in February. NPD reported Wii sales of 259,000 for the same period a year earlier.

Sales of video games, consoles and accessories jumped 57 percent to $1.7 billion from $1.1 million a year earlier. Hardware sales rose 46 percent to $551.3 million. Game sales increased to $945.6 million and accessories gained 58 percent to $220 million.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, rose 27 cents to $29.22 today in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. U.S.-traded Sony rose 55 cents to $42.39 on the New York Stock Exchange. Nintendo rose 0.6 percent to 52,600 yen in Osaka.

To contact the reporters on this story: Michael White in Los Angeles at mwhite8@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 17, 2008 20:04 EDT