Wii selling more hardware, Xbox more games

It's one of the more curious phenomena in the world of gaming: While the Nintendo Wii remains the far-and-away #1 best selling console on the market, the Xbox 360 is dominating both video game rental and sales charts.

In a year-to-date ranking of video game rentals, the Xbox has the top seven titles (and the #10 title), in this order: Call of Duty: World at War, Gears of War 2, Resident Evil 5, Saints Row 2, Halo Wars, Fallout 3, and Fable 2. The Wii has just one title on the list, Mario Kart (#8), and the PS3 version of CoD:WaW lands at #9. Grand Theft Auto IV on Xbox rounds out the #10 spot on the list.

As retail sales go, the chart is a bit less wholly owned by the Xbox, but that console still reigns with six of the ten top spots: Nintendo's Wii Fit, however, is the biggest selling game of the year so far, followed by a muddier lineup of titles appearing on all three major consoles. That list looks like this:

1. Wii Fit (Wii)
2. Resident Evil 5 (360)
3. Halo Wars (360)
4. Killzone 2 (PS3)
5. Street Fighter IV (360)
6. Mario Kart (Wii)
7. UFC 2009: Undisputed (360)
8. Resident Evil 5 (PS3)
9. Guitar Hero: Metallica (360)
10. Fallout 3 (360)

The numbers offer a look at quite an interesting phenomenon, with Nintendo Wii enthusiasts clinging to a very small number of titles that drive sales singlehandedly. I wouldn't be surprised if a majority of Wii owners have never bought an additional game for it at all and are still exclusively playing Wii Sports, which came with the console. That said, Wii Fit is a watershed mini-hit, of course.

Xbox 360, on the other hand, appears to be selling lots of games to its established user base. Many of those titles are adult-focused and rated Mature; Guitar Hero: Metallica is about the only general audience 360 title on the list, and even that's debatable as an youth-accessible title.

Then there's the PS3. Hey, I hear Killzone 2 is great.