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U.S. sales of video game hardware and software increased 57 percent in March from a year earlier, according to a report from the NPD Group.

Sales of gaming hardware, software and accessories reached $1.7 billion in March with the Nintendo Wii seeing its biggest gain in a non-holiday month.

"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. "Year-to-date growth is a rock-solid 27 percent through March 2008."

The Wii console took the top spot selling 721,000 units for the month, partly due to new releases such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which sold 2.7 million copies. Nintendo DS came in second moving 698,000 units, followed by PlayStation Portable at 297,000 units. Xbox 360 sold 262,000 units, edging out PlayStation 3, which sold 257,000 units, and PlayStation 2 at 216,000 units.

The most popular gaming software included the Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii, Nintendo) with 2.7 million units, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (Xbox 360, Ubisoft) with 752,000 units, and Amy of Two (Xbox 360, EA) 606,100 units.