WASHINGTON, USA - Videogame sales in the three leading markets - Britain, Japan and the United States - declined eight per cent last year to 379.3 million units, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Activision's 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,' was the top-selling game of the year, meanwhile, despite only being released in November, according to the Top Global Markets report.

Nintendo games grabbed the next four places on the 2009 best-selling list, according to the report, which is compiled using figures from the NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track Ltd and Enterbrain Inc.

The Top Global Markets report said videogame sales declined 14 per cent in Britain, two per cent in Japan and seven per cent in the United States last year compared with the previous year.

Console software sales fell by six per cent in Britain while portable game software sales were off by 25 per cent.

In Japan, console software sales dropped by five per cent and portable game software sales fell by one per cent.

In the United States, console software sales fell by seven per cent while portable game software sales dipped by eight per cent.

The report attributed much of the decline to the shrinking PlayStation 2 market, which declined in unit sales by 56 per cent in the United States, 67 per cent in Britain and by 55 per cent in Japan.

'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2' notched up total sales of 11.86 million units in Britain, Japan and the United States, selling 8.82 million copies in the United States, 237,500 in Japan and 2.80 million in Britain.

The next four top-selling titles were Nintendo's 'Wii Sports Resort,' "New Super Mario Bros. Wii,' "Wii Fit Plus' and 'Wii Fit.'

They sold 7.57 million copies, 7.41 million copies, 5.80 million copies and 5.44 million copies respectively in the three markets.