
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the Biggest Zelda launch Ever in the UK - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 14 May 2023 / 5,133 ViewsNintendo released The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom last Friday, May 12 for the Nintendo Switch and with just two days available it is already the eighth best-selling The Legends of Zelda game of all time in the UK, according to the head of GamesIndustry Christopher Dring.
The game did set a record for the biggest The Legend of Zelda launch in history in the UK, easily beating the previous record holder - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
"In the UK, and after just two days, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is already the eighth biggest Zelda game of all time," said Dring. "It's already outsold Skyward Sword, The Wind Waker and A Link Between Worlds. This is based on boxed sales alone."
In the UK, and after just two days, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is already the eighth biggest Zelda game of all time. It's already outsold Skyward Sword, The Wind Waker and A Link Between Worlds. This is based on boxed sales alone. (GfK figures)
— Christopher Dring (@Chris_Dring) May 14, 2023
The latest The Legends of Zelda game was "comfortably the biggest boxed game release of the year" in the UK with sales 54 percent higher than Hogwarts Legacy. Nintendo doesn't share digital sales, so it is hard to compare total sales.
"It is comfortably the biggest boxed game release of the year, with sales almost a third bigger than Hogwarts Legacy," said Dring. However, he later corrected himself, "Sorry, compared to Hogwarts, Zelda’s UK boxed launch is 54% bigger. Not a third."
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom had the second biggest launch ever for the Nintendo Switch in the UK. Launch sales were just behind Pokémon Scarlet / Violet. Launch sales were also 173 percent higher than The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Though, that game was a launch title for the Nintendo Switch.
"It's not quiet the biggest Switch release ever, as it was slightly below what Pokémon Scarlet and Violet managed last year," said Dring. "The launch is 173% bigger than Breath of the Wild.
"In terms of revenue, Tears of the Kingdom is already the fourth biggest Zelda game of all time. Just a bit behind Ocarina of Time (No.3), and Twilight Princess."
Here are the biggest The Legends of Zelda retail launches in the UK:
Pos | Title | Platform(s) | Release Year |
---|---|---|---|
1 | The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom | Switch | 2023 |
2 | The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | Switch + Wii U | 2017 |
3 | The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker | GameCube | 2003 |
4 | The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess | Wii | 2006 |
5 | The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time | N64 | 1998 |
6 | The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword | Wii | 2011 |
7 | The Legend of Zelda: Skyward SWord HD | Nintendo Switch | 2021 |
8 | The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening | Nintendo Switch | 2019 |
9 | The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks | DS | 2009 |
10 | The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D | 3DS | 2011 |
Here are the best-selling The Legends of Zelda games of all time in the UK:
Pos | Title | Platform(s) | Release Year |
---|---|---|---|
1 | The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | Nintendo Switch | 2017 |
2 | The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess | Wii | 2006 |
3 | The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time | N64 | 1998 |
4 | Link's Crossbow Training | Wii | 2007 |
5 | The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass | DS | 2007 |
6 | The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D | 3DS | 2011 |
7 | The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening | Nintendo Switch | 2019 |
8 | The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom | Switch | 2023 |
9 | The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword | Wii | 2011 |
10 | The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker | GameCube | 2003 |
Thanks, GamesIndustry.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Incredible game, spent most of the weekend playing.
Well deserved. I'm enjoying it a ton.
Well deserved Nintendo did it again. These Zelda games are the pinnacle of what open world games are all about.
Ubisoft take note.
Looks like an improvement over BOTW in many aspects, so well deserved.
Everytthing i see about this game looks funny as fuck, this game is meme material, flaming exploding dicks was the best gif i saw all year.
wow "sales 54 percent higher than Hogwarts Legacy"
Physical only, mind you.
My copy arrives May 25th.
BotW was a great game, even if it was really far from being the best game ever, and I've spent a lot of time playing it, so I'm excited, specially since I'll be playing this one in the same timeframe as one of my best friends and we can chat about it.
Watch out Nintendo have been coming down on user created content and while you may think that the fact that you got away with stealing all those Green Greatest hits Sony labels and attaching them to your burnt TLoD copies, was due to you outsmarting Sony, it was instead due to the fact that the only ones who bought them were your gullible family who believed that they were indeed buying the precious religious artifacts you claimed them to be.
In this case though all those boxes labelled in crayon with The Legend of Dart :Tears of the Kingdom of Dragoons along with your family disowning you will see you brought down, so get ready to sell your pet hippo that you following in the footsteps of crime lords decided to buy after ripping off your family.
Typo, it says Wind Waker on Wii instead of GC.
Edit: thanks