March figures for game console sales in the US show that Nintendo's Wii has once again beaten Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3.

According to the estimates from market research company NPD the consoles sold 259,000, 199,000 and 130,000 units respectively.

However, it was Sony's PlayStation 2 that topped the chart with sales of 280,000 across the US.

This seems to be related primarily to the drop in price of the PS2, along with the release of the highly anticipated God of War 2, which topped the games charts with 833,000 copies sold in March.

Nintendo's Wii Play followed in second place, selling 644,000 units.

Handheld consoles continued to dwarf their set-top companions with 508,000 Nintendo DS units and 180,000 Sony PlayStation Portables flying off the shelves in March.

"PlayStation 3 saw a month-over-month increase of two per cent with sales of 129,638 units," said Sony in a statement.

"We continued to find ourselves supply constrained in March due primarily to the shift in manufacturing focus to the PS3 PAL version to support the launch of the system in Europe."

Despite Nintendo taking the market by storm this year, many commentators have suggested that it is not necessarily accurate to compare the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Their respective features, content and price points mean that they each focus on different markets and demographic groups.