Market research firm NPD Group reports that September brought a significant increase in video game sales, creating a record as the best September in video game history.

In September, total sales for the industry reached $777 million. That’s a 38% increase from September of last year, which reached sales of $563 million.

Hardware sales were a leading cause of the record-breaking month. They jumped to $244 million, up 71% from last year’s $143 million. Despite the drought of new hardware, as a precursor to the Wii and PS3 releases), hardware sales had more momentum last month, headlined by the Nintendo’s portable DS Lite console, which continues to lead US market share. More than 400,000 units were sold last month, NPD said.

Software sales tipped the scales at $446 million. The same year-ago period was $347 million (+21%). Sales of accessories jumped to $88 million, up 21% from $73 million.

So far, total year-to-date sales for 2006 are up 11% over last year. This number is expected to rise dramatically after the month of November, with the Nintendo Wii and expensive PS3 consoles sure to sell out after their initial launch, and any additional supply before the holidays also expected to be snatched up immediately.