January NPD: Black Ops 2 tops, DmC: Devil May Cry debuts in sixth place

Black Ops 2, Far Cry 3 and Just Dance 4 were January's best-selling games, according to NPD sales data, with Capcom's rebooted DmC: Devil May Cry sliding in at sixth place. As per usual, the full list of the month's top 10 best-selling games can be found after the break.

During the five-week period running from December 30, 2012, through February 2, 2013, the combined might of the video game sales industry's physical retail channels earned a total of $834.7 million, a nine percent year-over-year increase as compared with January 2011's performance. This is the first time the industry has reported an annualized overall increase in sales in at least twelve months.

2013's "January" is five weeks, as opposed to the traditional four, for calculation purposes. The NPD Group makes this adjustment once every six or seven years to combat data drift in its reporting, much in the same way our calendar system implements a Leap Day to correct for discrepancies between the number of days in the year, and the length of Earth's orbit.

Therefore, January's year-over-year increase is actually the direct result of the extended recording period. If January's overall results are "corrected" for the additional time, the industry's physical retail performance is actually down by 13 percent, rather than up by nine. Regardless, hardware sales in general were responsible for $205 million of the period's total invoice, up four percent since last year without corrections and down 17 percent with.

Once again, the Xbox 360 was the best-selling piece of overall hardware, as it has been for the last 18 months. January was also the console's twenty-fifth month as the leading console.

Accessories sales saw the largest development in sales, increasing by 30 percent pre-corrections and four percent post – $256.6 million in January of this year versus $198.1 million last year. Meanwhile, Software sales saw the smallest pre-correction annualized jump with $373.1 million for the period, which is just one percent above the segment's earnings in 2011. After corrections, that difference drops to a 19 percent year-over-year loss.

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (360, PS3, Wii U, PC)

2. Far Cry 3 (360, PS3, PC)

3. Just Dance 4 (Wii, 360, PS3, Wii U)

4. NBA 2k13 (360, PS3, Wii, Wii U, PSP, PC)

5. Madden NFL 13 (360, PS3, Wii, PSV, Wii U)

6. DmC: Devil May Cry (PS3, 360)

7. Halo 4 (360)

8. Assassin's Creed 3 (360, PS3, Wii U, PC)

9. Skylander Giants (Wii, 360, PS3, 3DS, Wii U)

10. FIFA Soccer 13 (PS3, 360, PSV, Wii, Wii U, 3DS, PSP)