Amazon shipped 6.3 million items over Christmas

Selling 72.9 items per second at peak time

29 December 2008 11:33 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Amazon has announced the 2008 "holiday season" finished as its best ever, with over 6.3 million items ordered worldwide on the peak day, 15 December, with a record-breaking 72.9 items sold per second.

Shipping to over 210 countries, the etailer has released some stats about its Christmas sales in the States, giving a snapshot of gift giving in 2008.

Between 15 November to 10 December, Amazon sold one copy of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 every 2.5 minutes while top-selling movies were "Wall-E" and "The Dark Knight".

Top sellers in consumer electronics included Samsung's 52-inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV, the Apple iPod touch 8GB and the Acer Aspire One 8.9-inch netbook in blue.

The Nintendo Wii dominated the top sellers in video games and hardware including the Wii console, the Wii remote controller and the Wii nunchuk controller.

"We are extremely grateful to our customers", said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. "We wish everyone happy holidays and the very best for the coming year".