One of the very few sectors that is still avoiding the recession which struck the country’s economy is still the gaming industry. The $22 billion-a-year industry surprised and exceeded analysts and their forecasts according to data provided by NPD Group.

The gaming industry in the United States grew 10 percent to $2.91 billion in November. Videogame consoles sales were also up 10 percent, to $1.21 billion. The growth was 6% to 9 percent higher than analysts’ predictions.

Analysts based their gloomy predictions regarding the gaming industry on two factors of influence: the state of the economy and this year’s late Thanksgiving. But the predictions were exceeded and, according to NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier, the video games industry is still on track to achieve the total year revenue of $22 billion in the U.S.

The top of the industry’s top sellers remained unchanged. Nintendo Co Ltd’s sales of Wii game console more than doubled to about 800,000 units during the week of Thanksgiving in the U.S.The company sold about 350,000 units a year earlier. About 1.5 million handheld Nintendo DS were sold in November.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s sales of Xbox 360 climbed 8% from a year ago to 836,000, NPD reported.

Electronic Arts, on the other hand, isn’t doing so well. The Redwood City, Calif.-based company said on Tuesday that it will miss its financial projections for this fiscal year. The company has been downgraded by analysts and its shares plunged nearly 20 percent.

"We saw a big improvement in the quality of our games, but that hasn't translated into enough sales," EA Chief Executive John Riccitiello said.

As for the bestselling video games of the month, they were well established franchises such as Microsoft Games Studios’ “Gears of War” (sold 1.56 million units). "Call of Duty: World At War" from Activision Blizzard Inc. was the No.2 of the month with 1.41 million units sold.

The data was provided by the NPD Group.