January NPD: It's a dance, dance, dance, dance revolution

The NPD Group's analysis of games industry business for January 2011 has hit -- and the real hits are dancing games. The top 10 best-selling titles for the month include four dancing games: Just Dance 2, Zumba Fitness: Join the Party, Dance Central and Michael Jackson: The Experience. In fact, even the month's two biggest new releases, Dead Space 2 and LittleBigPlanet 2, were outsold by Ubisoft's unstoppable Just Dance sequel (though the former only got one week of sales, having launched January 25).

On the hardware front, sales were down eight percent overall versus January 2010, with software and accessories also dipping by five percent and six percent, respectively. Microsoft has provided specific hardware sales numbers, reporting 381,000 consoles sold for the month, up 48,000 units from January 2010. Sony, for its part, isn't talking hardware, instead saying that PS3 software sales are up 25 percent year-over-year.

Keep reading past the break for the full top 10 in software sales.


Top 10 best-selling games for January 2011:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops -- 360, PS3, WII, NDS, PC -- 1 -- Activision Blizzard
• Just Dance 2 -- WII -- 2 -- Ubisoft
• Dead Space 2 -- 360, PS3, PC -- 3 -- Electronic Arts
• Little Big Planet 2 -- PS3 -- 4 -- Sony
• Zumba Fitness: Join the Party -- WII, 360, PS3 -- 5 -- Majesco
• NBA 2K11 -- 360, PS3, PSP, WII, PS2, PC -- 6 -- Take 2 Interactive
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood -- 360, PS3 -- 7 -- Ubisoft
• Dance Central -- 360 -- 8 -- MTV Games
• Michael Jackson The Experience -- WII, DS, PSP -- 9 -- Ubisoft
• DC Universe Online: The Next Legend Is You -- PS3, PC -- 10 -- Sony