As is the case with every mid-month, NPD releases data involving the gaming industry and certain fans decide which side of the fence they’re going to lean on and how they’re going to spin the numbers to satisfy their stance. This month, as the data for January rolls out, one company is satisfied with its performance as it saw a 25% growth in year-over-year sales which is quite impressive — that company, being Sony.

“January’s NPD numbers, reflecting a 25% increase in PS3 software sales, demonstrate continued momentum for the PlayStation ecosystem. As the only system with both stereoscopic 3D and precision motion controlled gaming, PlayStation is delivering a new era of immersive entertainment fueled by the industry’s strongest content lineup. Next week, with the arrival of one of the most anticipated titles of the year, Killzone 3, consumers’ expectations for exhilarating 3D graphics and fast-paced PlayStation Move action will be further elevated in living rooms around the world,” said Patrick Seybold, Sr. Director of Corporate Communications at SCEA.

Considering the month of January is slim in terms of game releases, it should be interesting to see how Sony pans out the remainder of the year when it comes to major software sales as it has one of the most anticipated lineups in recent years that I can remember.

Furthermore, Sony’s exclusive LittleBigPlanet 2 did fantastically as it nabbed the #4 spot in total software sales and was the only exclusive title from the PlayStation 3 library of games to do so. Unexpectedly, Call of Duty: Black Ops was actually the number one sold game for the month of January. This is just odd considering hotly anticipated titles like Mass Effect 2 wasn’t even on the list of Top 10 sales.

We’ve included the Top 10 breakdown of software sales below.