Xbox 360 leads U.S. platform sales for 18th consecutive month

What a run the Xbox 360 has been on. For the last 18 months, Microsoft's console has been the top-selling platform with the most recent data from NPD Group revealing 257,000 Xbox 360 units were sold during the month of June.

This means the Xbox 360 has been the best-selling console in the United Stats for 18 consecutive months and now commands a 47% market share for current-generation consoles.

Microsoft wasn't the only one celebrating June's numbers. Nintendo sold 155,000 3DS units in the U.S. for June, surpassing the five million mark in the handhend's lifetime sales.

On the whole, the industry suffered another disappointing month. Sales of hardware and accessories at physical stores in the U.S. fell by 29% in June to under $700 million. With digital sales included, sales finished at $1.3 billion.

"Outside of new physical retail software," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier, "the second largest channel generating sales of content is in the area of mobile games.  We’ve watched this grow consistently quarter over quarter, and new survey results indicate that 57% of smartphone owners play games on their phones on a daily basis.  What’s really interesting is that when asked where they were when they last played a game on their smartphones, 65% indicated that they had played the game at home".

The Xbox 360 held four of the top 10 U.S. console game titles, including Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, Max Payne 3 and NBA 2K12. As for Nintendo, two of the top five and nine of the top 25 best-selling titles were available on their platform.