Here is what VGchartz has for predictions for the top 20 games for March. The VGC numbers are black while the NPD numbers will be blue.


March 09:

1. Pokemon Platinum 854,274  854,274

2. Wii Sports 818,552 (Not sure if this is included in NPD but oh well)

3. Resident Evil 5 Xbox 360 796,574 938,000

4. Halo Wars 656,865 639,000

5. Wii Fit  592,024 541,000

6. RE5 PS3 492,649 585,000

7. Wii Play 357,024 285,00

8. Killzone 2 308,396 296,000

9. Mario Kart Wii 307,040 278,000

10. MLB 2k9 Xbox 360 235,221 205,000

11. MLB 09 The Show PS3 191,050 305,000

12 CoD: WaW Xbox 360 157,588

13. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown wars 155,516 89,000

14. New Super Mario Bros. 150,088

15. Mario Kart DS 134,318

16. SFIV Xbox 360 128,426

17. Guitar Hero World Tour Wii 124,653

18. Mario Tennis 124,444

19. Tom Clancy's HAWK Xbox 360 120,006

20. Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village (I love seeing this one hang in there!) 118,609

Hardware:

Wii 818,552 601,000

DS 604,520 563,000

Xbox 360 369,287 330,000

PS3 309,209 218,000

PSP 229,876 168,000

PS2 101,078 112,000

We'll see how these compare to the official NPD numbers. It will probably take a bit to get the top 20 down. Any help getting there would be appreciated!

April 09
1      
   Pokemon Platinum
      Nintendo   847,270 433k
2      
   Wii Sports
      Nintendo   568,334
3      
   Wii Fit
      Nintendo   512,859 471K
4      
   Guitar Hero: Metallica
      Activision   326,404
5      
   Mario Kart Wii
      Nintendo   274,268 210K
6      
   Wii Play
      Nintendo   250,610 170k
7      
   Guitar Hero: Metallica
      Activision   248,456
8      
   The Godfather II
      Electronic Arts   226,827 155k
9      
   Resident Evil 5
      Capcom   214,392 122k
10      
   Mario Kart DS
      Nintendo   201,544 112k
11      
   New Super Mario Bros
      Nintendo   192,406 119
12      
   Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village
      Nintendo   167,663
13      
   Call of Duty: World at War
      Activision   165,816
14      
   Rhythm Heaven
      Nintendo   165,426
15      
   Halo 3
      Microsoft   147,134
16      
   Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
      Take-Two Interactive   144,025 74k
17      
   Resident Evil 5
      Capcom   142,617
18      
   Guitar Hero: Metallica
      Activision   131,864
19      
   Super Mario 64 DS
      Nintendo   126,182
20      
   Nintendogs
      Nintendo   123,105

Hardware:

DSi/DSL: 1,343,454 1.04 mil
Wii: 568,334 340k
360: 339,354 175K
PS3: 217,568 127k
PS2: 180,441 172k
PSP: 174,060  116k

To be honest you walk into any store here in the UK and your see 40% of the store is for the Wii, 40% is for the 360, about 10% for PS3 and PC. This is in nearly every store you go in. I fail to believe with that rough % the PS3 is only 3k or so less per week then the 360. It would be noticable to see a trend like that if it was as close.
At the end of the day it makes no difference what they sell but i do think that in the past 6 months stores have deffinatly started to give up PS3 space to either the Wii or to 360. So that makes me think if these figures were true it would be more equal which it isn't.

I know what you mean, although 360 has way better games then the Wii its still nice to see it have higher sales. Same with PS3 which has the best exclusives (In number and quality).

That doesnt mean much,  in the Best Buy stores in my area it is basically even.  There is a row for each console, the only consoles sharing a row are the PSP and DS.

really?  thats very odd.  What size of best buy is it?  I have worked in a 20k and 40k sized stores.  They generally break the game sections into 4 foot sections.  Each side of the aisle has 10 4ft sections.  At the 40k store that I work at now the breakdown is this

Ds = 7 4ft games, 3 4ft accessories

wii = 5 4ft games, 5 4ft accessories

ps3 = 4 4ft games, 3 4ft accessories

psp = 2 4 ft games/movies, 1 4ft accessories

Ps2 = 6 4ft games, 3 4ft accessories.

Xbox 360 = 6 4ft games, 5 4ft accessories.

It was a similar breakdown in the 20k, but with less 4ft sections available, but about the same divison % wise.  The thing that confuses me is that they have the psp and ds sharing a row in your store.  DS having way more titles than anything else that best buy carries.  In my store, The aisle's are broken down by console manufactures, so microsoft has an aisle (although the other side of the aisle is just strategy guids, as they only have one system.) Sony has an aisle with ps3 and psp on one side and ps2 on the other. (with one 4ft being 360 accessories)  Then one aisle for nintento, ds on one side and wii on the other. 

My guess? Four factors.

1) As you said, the economy. Cannot be minimized.

2) Slow time of year. Slowwwww.

3) According to VGC, this gen has already sold some 102 million consoles. That's actually a lot as we are technically about 3.5 years into the current gen (2.5 for the Wii and PS3). Which leads us into ...

4) Consoles this gen are still expensive compared to previous gens. They're not mainstream priced yet. The PS3 isn't anywhere CLOSE. Until they all become cheaper, things will not pick up substantially. The expensive one should be $199-249 at this point in time. That being the case, this gen will HAVE to last longer just to get consoles to those lower price points and relative profitability.

The best games... that is a matter of opinion! One that i, and i'm sure many others, do not agree with!

Fixed;

NPD + GFK/ChartTrack + Media Create data (WorldWide at 01 May 2009):

    * Nintendo Wii: 49.719.000
    * Microsoft Xbox 360: 30.101.000
    * Sony Playstation 3: 21.977.000
    * Nintendo DS: 102.040.000
    * Sony PSP: 46.422.000

01 January 2009/ 01 May 2009 (PS3 vs 360):

 * Xbox 360: 2.473.143
 * Playstation 3: 2.205.000

just for you :)

(Next update 18 june)

dont worry, just wait till E3, something big should be announced.