Although the video game industry continued to defy the recession in February, Nintendo's U.S. sales of its Wii video-game consoles rose 74 percent in February, extending the company's lead over Microsoft and Sony. The video game industry posted double-digit year-over-year growth in February, according to market researcher NPD Group.

U.S. retail sales did not grow as quickly versus the year-ago period as they did in January. But revenue from video game hardware still climbed 11 percent to $532.7 million from $481.4 million, according to market researcher.

Nintendo sold 753,000 Wii players last month. U.S. stores sold 391,000 Microsoft Xbox 360 players, a gain of 53 percent, and 276,000 of Sony's PlayStation 3, a 1.7 percent decline.

The top-selling game in February was Capcom's "Street Fighter IV," which sold 849,000 copies for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, said NPD, based in Port Washington, New York. Nintendo' Wii Fit sold 644,000 copies. Electronic Arts is releasing "Sports Active" to compete against "Wii Fit" on the Nintendo player.

Overall software sales grew 9 percent to $733.5 million from $673.3 million.