Sales of the Xbox 360 of Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) have reportedly been impressive despite a recent overall decline in the sales of game devices.

The gaming console of Microsoft was considered as the best-selling gaming device in the United States for the month of January for the 13th time in a row.

Around 270,000 units of the Xbox 360 were sold by Microsoft for January, which represents a 49 percent share of the market for the month. Total sales, which include the software, hardware and accessories, have reached around $310 million for the Xbox 360 as it accounted for over forty percent of the entire market.

Five of the ten top-selling games for January in the United States were for the Xbox 360. This report comes as the Xbox 360 was considered as the best-selling game console for 2011.

Even though demand for a console normally goes down after a certain period, it appears that the Xbox 360 has maintained it appeal among consumers as it was able to continue to gain the interest of consumers through the addition of new technologies and features on the device.

Even as the game console offering of Microsoft is enjoying good sales, the industry is currently suffering from as overall gaming sales have decreased by 34 percent to around $750 million from $1.14 billion. Sales of gaming hardware have also decreased by around 38 percent while software sales went down by around 37 percent.

Among the reasons for the decline was the absence of software launches along with unimpressive performance in the hardware and accessories.

Sales of top games have also declined as new game titles only accounted for 13 percent of the overall sales just as the Xbox 360 continued to be appealing to gaming enthusiasts. Despite this less-than-impressive situation, around $400 million was spent by consumers on other items including subscriptions, rentals and downloads.

News-Source: planetinsane.com"