If you couldn’t guess, gaming had a great year in 2007 — one of its best ever.

The one-two punch of unquenchable demand for Nintendo’s Wii console and sales of Microsoft Corp.’s “Halo 3″ super-shooter sequel helped boost game sales to a record $17.94 billion for the year, according to market researcher NPD Group.

Total video game sales increased 43 percent, up from $12.53 billion in 2006. Last month, Americans spent $4.82 billion on video games, up 28 percent from a year earlier and up 83 percent from $2.63 billion in November — proof that Christmas shoppers weren’t letting economic concerns interfere with their gameplay.

After all, in good times as well as bad, people just want to have fun.

Gaming hardware sales jumped as well, soaring 54 percent to $7.04 billion in 2007, and software sales climbed 34 percent to $8.64 billion. In December, hardware sales increased 17 percent to $1.83 billion, and software sales increased 36 percent to $2.37 billion.

All this growth was spurred in part by growing perceptions that gaming isn’t just for gamers any more. The Wii’s motion-sensitive controller and activity-inspired titles changed how games could be played and where, helping push the platform out of homes and into vacation retreats, retirement centers and rehabilitation centers.

The Wii sold 6.3 million units in 2007, 1.4 million of them last month. Nintendo has increased Wii production twice since last April, the last time to 1.8 million units a month, but demand continues to overwhelm retailers.

Meanwhile, the rise in 2007 of “casual games” — distinguished by their simplicity, brevity and low strategy — brought back former gamers who once thought they lacked the time or had outgrown the hobby. This helped the portable Nintendo DS become the year’s best-selling gaming system with 8.5 million units sold, 2.5 million of them in December.

On the outside looking in last year was Sony’s PlayStation 3, the only gaming system that didn’t sell more than a million units in December. Yet sales increased sharply after Sony trimmed the console’s cost by $100 and launched a low-end model last fall. About 797,600 PS3s sold during last month, and 2.6 million for the year.

Among all games, “Halo 3″ was the overwhelming favorite — so strong, in fact, that sales of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 system increased, with 4.6 million of the consoles sold in 2007. But Activision’s “Guitar Hero” has since shoved “Halo 3″ aside to become the industry’s top franchise.