Market research firm Permuto Discoveries have published a list of the top-selling Christmas gifts for kids over the past forty years. Unsurprisingly, over the past few years at least, video games have dominated.

The list provides only the single, top-selling, must-have item for the year. No room for second place here. And it shows that seven times in the past 34 years - beginning with Pong in 1975 - a video game or games console has come in at #1. Bump that number up to eight if you count 1999's Pokemon, owned by Nintendo, as a gaming product.

Gaming gear really starts to pull away in the past decade, with the PS2 topping 2001's list, followed by the DS, Wii and PS3 in 2004, 2006 and 2007 respectively. Hrm. Wait a minute. The PS3 outsold the Wii for Christmas 2007? It most certainly did not.

Makes you wonder whether Permuto got anything else on the list wrong. We hope not, though; 1993's Genesis Mortal Kombat looks just fine where it is, thanks.

The Most Popular Christmas Toys, By Year Since 1960 [Permuto]