Japanese game giant Nintendo Co. Ltd. claimed that U. S. sales of its popular Wii game console surged in December and will likely exceed three million units, expected to set an annual record for portable game players.

"We think the Wii hardware performance is a positive surprise", KBC Securities analyst Hiroshi Kamide said in a research note, adding that it boded well for the next business year which starts in April.

The shares of the Kyoto-based Company registered a 7% increase on Wednesday soon after the holiday sales in United States resulted in eroding market concerns that momentum for its Wii game console had peaked.

The combined November videogame software and hardware revenue reported a fall of 7.6% annually to $2.69 billion, in line with expectations. However, the revenue from videogame sales fell by 3.1% despite expectations of mild growth in the mid-single-digit percentage range.

The company shares, which were captured in a competition with Sony Corp and Microsoft Corp in the global video game industry, had increased more than five times in the past two years to October 2007, driven by white hot demand for the Wii and DS. However, the stock lost 66% of its value as sales of its product slipped after that.