Junior economics major Brian Burgess waves his arms wildly in front of his TV. He may look like a crazy person to an outsider, but he is actually taking part in the latest gaming craze.

Burgess owns a Nintendo Wii, which uses motion-sensing controllers to play games.

“Wii is the next step in gaming,” Burgess said. “Past systems have made games look real. Wii makes games feel real.”

Nintendo Wii launched alongside Sony’s PlayStation 3 last November and the results so far may come as a surprise.

Despite the hype around the PlayStation 3 launch, the Nintendo Wii has sold more units. According to Gamespot.com, the NPD Group – a media research entity ­- reported that the Wii sold 1.1 million systems in the U.S. through Jan. 11. Over the same period, the PlayStation 3 moved 687,300 units.

“Wii is the top performing [system] entertainment-wise,” said Best Buy media specialist Corey Newgent. “We’re sold out in 30 to 45 minutes after we get them in.”

Newgent said although the PlayStation 3 is more advanced graphically, the Wii isn’t about graphics, but the control.

Freshman history major Mike Murphy has played the PlayStation 3 and said the graphics are “marginally better than XBox 360.”

The NPD Group reports the top-selling game of both new systems is The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on Wii. It sold more than 935,000 copies in December and was recognized as the best game of the year by many media groups including GameSpy, Electronic Gaming Monthly and X-Play. The top selling game on the PlayStation 3 has been Resistance: Fall of Man.

Newgent isn’t writing off the PlayStation 3 though.

“Sales haven’t been great, but I expect it to pick up in March,” Newgent said.

Newgent said the best reason to buy a PlayStation 3 right now is for the built-in Blu-Ray player. Newgent calls getting a quality Blu-Ray player at $600 “a steal.”

The Wii sells for $250 and includes the Wii Sports game.

The PlayStation 3 is available in two versions: A $500 base unit with a 20 gigabyte hard drive, and a fully loaded $600 package with a 60 gigabyte hard drive.