Unsurprisingly, Mass Effect 3 topped software sales in March, the latest sales figures from the NPD show. In fact, it was a great month for new games, with a number of new releases comprising the top 10. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City's number two performance shows that negative reviews could not deter fans of the franchise. The PlayStation-exclusive MLB: The Show dominated 2K Games' multiplatform effort, Major League Baseball 2K12. The success of Street Fighter X Tekken, Mario Party 9, and Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations shows the wide array of tastes sated by March's games. 3DS also found a winner in Kid Icarus Uprising, which "would have been among the top selling individual SKUs for the month of March" had NPD not combined sales data across multiple platforms.

Still, varied software sales couldn't offset continued declines in the industry. As a whole, combined hardware and software sales totaled to $1.10 billion, 25 percent less than in March 2011.

Hardware sales slowed down especially, as all systems saw a decline versus last year. Microsoft continued dominating with the Xbox 360, now in its 15th consecutive month as top-selling console in the American marketplace.

Here is the full list:

Top 10 Games (New Physical Retail only; across all platforms including PC)
• Mass Effect 3 (360, PS3, PC)
• Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (360, PS3)
• MLB: The Show (PS3, PSV)
• NBA 2K12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2, PC)
• SSX 2012 (360, PS3)
• Street Fighter X Tekken (PS3, 360)
• Mario Party 9 (Wii)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3, Wii, PC)
• Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations (360, PS3)
• Major League Baseball 2K12 (360, PS3, Wii, NDS, PSP, PC, PS2)

Major titles that have dropped off the list from last month include Final Fantasy XIII-2, UFC Undisputed 3, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Soul Calibur V, and Twisted Metal.