With the launch of the Nintendo DSi in North America last month, Nintendo managed to shift over 1 million DS consoles on the continent, NPD Group sales data has shown. The new DSi moved about 827,000 units while the DS Lite managed 215,000. That’s a combined 31% of total industry unit sales for the month.

While the DS sold nearly double the total it did in March and over double the sales from the same month last year (414,800), sales of the Wii declined both on a month-to-month and year-on-year basis. Total sales for Wii in North America in April were 340,000.

The declining sales can be partly explained on the Wii by the lack of blockbuster game releases. This time last year Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Bros. Brawl had just been released, helping to shift hardware.

Xbox 360 and PS3 were also down year-on-year meaning video game hardware sales for April 2009 totalled $391.63 million, a decline of 8%.

For the entire month’s hardware sales breakdown, follow the link. Read more on NPD Data Shows DSi On Top In April…