The standings may be the same, but the competition among the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii is so far proving much closer this holiday season than it was a year ago, according to unit sales numbers released this afternoon by the NPD market research firm.

Nintendo's Wii was once again on top of the market in November, with 1.26 million units sold for the month of November, including the critical Thanksgiving week. However, that was down from more than 2 million units sold in the same month a year ago, despite a $50 price reduction for the Nintendo console in the meantime.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 came in second place in unit sales in the U.S. for the month, selling 819,500 units for the month, down modestly from 836,000 units in the same month the previous year. At the same time, Microsoft topped both of its competitors with total consumer spending of $838 million on Xbox 360 hardware, games and accessories for the month. By that measure, Microsoft called it the Xbox 360's best November on record.

Sony's PlayStation 3 came in third place for the month, with 710,400 units. However, it was the only one of the three console makers to see an increase in unit sales, up from 378,8000 units sold in the U.S. in November 2008. NPD said the result, driven by price cuts, was the PS3's third best month ever for U.S. unit sales.

Overall sales of video-game hardware software and accessories in the U.S. were down about 7 percent, to $2.7 billion in the U.S., according to the NPD data. Heavy promotions appear to have helped hardware sales but not video-game sales, NPD analyst NPD Frazier wrote in notes accompanying the data.

The big game for the month was Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, which sold 4.2 million units on the Xbox 360 and 1.87 million units on the PlayStation 3. New Super Mario Bros. Wii was in third place, with 1.39 million units sold.

The Xbox 360's overall revenue numbers include Xbox Live subscriptions and points sold at retail. David Dennis, Xbox spokesman, said the company's strategy of making regular upgrades to the online service -- most recently adding Facebook and Twitter functionality -- have helped to broaden the Xbox 360's appeal.

"We’re making the console more relevant to more people in the house," he said.

In a statement to the media, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Jack Tretton, focused on trends including the PS3's gains compared to last holiday season.

"The sheer appetite and interest in the PS3 this holiday has been overwhelming and is exceeding our expectations. So much so, some retailers are expected to experience tight supply this December," Tretton said. "There's no question the holidays are looking very bright for PlayStation and we’re confident that the new year is on pace for the same with hugely anticipated titles hitting the platform, such as MAG, God of War III, BioShock 2, and Final Fantasy XIII."

In its news release, Nintendo observed that the Wii has now become "the fastest-selling home console to surpass an installed base of 23 million" in the United States.

It also noted that the Nintendo DS franchise set a record for handheld game hardware sales for the month of November, with nearly 1.7 million units of the Nintendo DS and DSi sold. By comparison, the Nintendo DS sold 1.57 million units in November 2008, the company said.

After the Thanksgiving week, we raised questions about the way Microsoft and Sony were characterizing their initial holiday sales.

Sony had said at the time that its Thanksgiving week PS3 sales were 440,000 units, leading many reporters to assume that the numbers were for the U.S. only, appearing to rival the 550,000 units that Nintendo reported for the Wii in the U.S. for the same week.

Sony acknowledged when asked that the data also included Canadian sales, making the numbers less impressive than they initially appeared. As noted above, NPD's data put the PS3 in third place in the U.S. for the month, but with big gains over its sales from last year.

Also after the Thanksgiving week, Xbox official Aaron Greenberg posted on Twitter that Xbox 360 sales that week were more than twice as big as the previous week. That post departed from the industry norm of comparing sales to the same period the prior year.

As noted above, actual Xbox 360 hardware unit sales for the month were down compared to November of last year, while overall revenue associated with the Xbox 360 was up for the month. NPD doesn't publicly disclose sales by week.

Post updated at 5:15 with additional details, comments