If video games are anything to go by, American consumers are yet to feel the pinch of a weakening economy.

Sales of consoles and video game software leapt by 57 per cent to $1.7 billion in March, as compared with last year, confounding analysts who had expected that wider economic woes may have been taking a toll on consumer electronics spending.

Nintendo's Wii console was the strongest performing console, shifting 721,000 units - an increase of 67 per cent on February, according to figures from NPD Group. Sales of video game software, meanwhile, rose by 63 per cent on the same period a year ago to $945.6 million, far surpassing analyst expectations.

"You’d never know that the US economy was under distress by looking at the video games industry sales figures,” Anita Frazie, an NPD analyst, said.

The top-selling game was Nintendo's 'Super Smash Bros: Brawl', a Wii title, which sold 2.7 million units. Some distance behind was 'Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2', made by Ubisoft, which sold 752,300 copies, and 'Army of Two' by Electronic Arts, which sold 606,100.

Nintendo was also the strongest performer in consoles, its Wii and portable DS devices together accounting for 58 per cent of video games hardware market.

Microsoft's Xbox nudged ahead of Sony's PlayStation 3, after several months of slower sales which Microsoft had blamed on supply constraints. Americans bought 262,000 Xbox 360s in March, as compared with 257,000 PlayStation 3s.

“We said as our supply issue lifted that we’d be back in the game,” a Microsoft spokesman said. "There are still pockets of shortages, but for most part you can go into a store and find an Xbox 360.”

Explore Tech & Web

• Personal Tech

• The Web

• Gadgets & Gaming

Times recommends

• Point-and-go computers consign mouse to history
• YoYotech Fi7epower: the world's fastest PC
• Bridging the gap between mind and machine