‘Call of Duty’ leads Nov. sales charge

Activision has done something no other publisher has been able to do this year – pull the video game industry out of its retail sales slump for the second consecutive month.

“Call of Duty: Black Ops” led the industry to an impressive 9 percent gain over the 2009 retail sales numbers. Add in hardware, Kinect and the rest of the assorted offerings and the gaming industry made $2.95 billion last month, according to The NPD Group. That’s the best November on record.

The gains are due almost exclusively to “Black Ops” – which sold 8.4 million units at retail in the U.S. - and Microsoft, which saw tremendous demand for its Xbox 360 and Kinect motion control device.

"The 360 platform accounted for over 40 percent of total industry sales driven by the successful launch of Microsoft's Kinect,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. “Xbox 360 accessories accounted for 60% of that categories' dollar sales this month."

Meanwhile, in just one month, “Black Ops” has already become the 7^th best selling video game of all time.

A full look at the month’s top 10 titles can be found after the jump.