Microsoft sold 391,000 Xbox 360s in the U.S. in February -- marking the video-game console's biggest non-holiday month outside of the September 2007 "Halo 3" launch, according to numbers released today by the NPD Group research firm. The result represents a 53 percent increase over the same month last year.

Nintendo's Wii continued to dominate the market, with 753,000 units sold in the U.S. during the month. Sony's PlayStation 3 came in third for the month with 276,000 units sold.

In its news release, NPD looked on the bright side of the Sony results, pointing out that the PS3 saw the largest percentage increase out of the three consoles when compared to January. However, compared with February 2008 sales, the PS3 was down by about 2 percent.

For Microsoft, last month included the release of "The Lost and Damned," the Xbox 360's first exclusive downloadable episode for Rockstar Games' "Grand Theft Auto IV." Microsoft isn't releasing sales data for the episode, but it achieved the largest first-day sales of any piece of content ever offered on Xbox Live, said David Dennis, an Xbox spokesman.

"We're certainly pleased, and we think that the developer is pleased, as well," Dennis said.

What about the economy? Overall industry sales of hardware, software and accessories were $1.47 billion for the month, a 10 percent increase over February 2008.

"The U.S. video games industry continues to post strong year-over-year comps despite the tough economy," NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a news release issued by the research firm. "Unit sales increased even more than dollar sales did, reflecting a slightly lower average retail price for all categories as compared to last year."