Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. video-game sales rose 41 percent to $419.6 million in July, led by Electronic Arts Inc.'s ``NCAA Football 09.''

Consumers purchased 397,600 copies of ``NCAA Football 09'' for the Xbox 360 at U.S. stores, Port Washington, New York-based researcher NPD Group Inc. said today in an e-mailed statement. Hardware rose 17 percent, led by Nintendo Co.'s Wii console.

Game sales were helped by increased advertising by retailers, Jesse Divnich, an analyst with Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, said in an Aug. 11 report. Sales will rise about 20 percent this year, San Diego-based Divnich wrote. Total U.S. revenue gained 28 percent to $926.2 million in July, NPD said.

Stores sold 555,000 Wii consoles. Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 was second with 224,900 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 was third with sales of 204,800.

Wii sales probably will increase as Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo increases production capacity, Michael Pachter, a Los Angeles-based analyst for Wedbush Morgan Securities, said in an Aug. 11 note. The company probably will raise monthly output to about 2.4 million in the fiscal year ending in March from 1.8 million in fiscal 2008, Pachter said.

The company's ``Wii Fit,'' which includes a balance board for exercises and games, was the second best-selling title with 369,600 copies sold, followed by ``Guitar Hero: On Tour,'' a version of Activision Blizzard Inc.'s rock 'n' roll play-along game for Nintendo's DS portable player, with 309,700 units sold.

Nintendo also led in sales of handheld game players. Consumers purchased 608,400 of the company's DS machines, compared with 221,700 units of Sony's PSP, NPD said.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, closed unchanged at $27.91 today in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. It has declined 22 percent this year. Sony's U.S.-listed shares fell 23 cents to $38.12 and are down 30 percent this year. Nintendo declined 1,500 yen to 52,400 yen in Osaka and is down 22 percent in 2008.

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

Last Updated: August 14, 2008 19:32 EDT