Nintendo DS is helping the videogame industry to a record year--and that's before the big months of November and December are tallied. Traditionally, these two months account for half of all game sales in a year.

According to new data from The NPD Group, through September's end, the U.S. videogame industry experienced revenue growth of 11 percent when compared with the same period in 2005. Nearly all of the growth came from the portable DS--without it, the industry would have reported a mere 1.6 percent growth over the past nine months. DS hardware and software units posted a robust gain of 203 percent when compared to the same period in 2005.

The news is the same globally: Nintendo recently announced estimated full-year shipments for DS hardware will grow to 20 million units from 17 million units worldwide, while estimated DS software shipments increased to 82 million units from 75 million.

The NPD numbers also indicate that during September, Nintendo has reached an installed base in the U.S. of more than 6.2 million units. That total includes more than 1.4 million units of the new Nintendo DS Lite systems, which launched just 16 weeks ago on June 11.

This summer, Nintendo launched its Touch Generations brand to help newcomers to video games identify which nontraditional and pick-up-and-play titles are appropriate for them. The response from consumers has been enthusiastic, as four of the top 10 best-selling Nintendo DS games are Touch Generations titles: "Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day" and the three versions of "Nintendogs." And at the same time, avid players also are fueling growth: the "New Super Mario Bros." game is the third best-seller among all video games this year, including console games.

According to internal statistics, Nintendo said the Touch Generation games are attracting a significant percentage of female gamers. In addition, many of these gamers are over 25 years of age. Traditionally, Nintendo's Game Boy and Game Boy Advance portables targeted a younger demographic, but that's evolving with Nintendo DS as gamers grow up and new consumers are trying out the dual screen system.