Nintendo’s Wii and DS led all U.S. sales in March, according to data from the NPD Group, which tracks video game sales in the United States. Pokémon Platinum Version for Nintendo DS emerged as the No. 2 video game of the month, with nearly 805,000 units sold.

Wii tallied sales of nearly 601,000 in March, while Nintendo DS sold more than half a million, even in advance of the April 5 launch of the Nintendo DSi system. Both Wii and Nintendo DS extended their lead as the best-selling video game systems of this generation.

Four games published by Nintendo finished in the top 10 best-sellers of March. These include Pokémon Platinum Version at No. 2, Wii Fit at No. 3 with more than 541,000 sold, Wii Play at No. 8 with more than 281,000 sold and Mario Kart Wii at No. 9 with more than 278,000 sold.

Early U.S. sales of the new Nintendo DSi hand-held system are ahead of those for Nintendo DS Lite, according to Nintendo’s internal tracking numbers. In its first week, Nintendo DSi sold 435,000 in the United States. After the same amount of time on the U.S. market after its launch, Nintendo DS Lite had sold 226,300 systems. These numbers demonstrate that the Nintendo DS brand remains strong, and that consumers continue to look for the best new experiences on their portable video game systems.

So far this year, video game industry revenues are on par with 2008, but Nintendo remains a key driver. Without Nintendo products, the industry would be down 14 percent for the year, according to the NPD Group.