Thanks to the Wii and Microsoft's Halo 3, the game software market earned nearly $17 billion last year, breaking all records.

According to the NPD Group, total video game sales grew by 43 percent, up from $12.53 billion in 2006. December saw Americans spend $4.82 billion on video games, up 28 percent from a year earlier. The fact that customers were cutting back on clothing and other items over fears of an economic slow down did not affect the gaming market at all.

Hardware sales also did well, jumping by 54 percent to $7.04 billion in 2007, while software sales climbed 34 percent to $8.64 billion. In December, hardware sales rose 17 percent to $1.83 billion, and software sales grew 36 percent to $2.37 billion.