The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is biggest physical game launch of 2023 overtaking Hogwarts Legacy

The sequel to Nintendo’s best selling Switch game has taken the title of the biggest physical game launch of 2023
Rebecca Braybrook
By Rebecca Braybrook
Published 15th May 2023, 16:44 BST

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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has become the biggest physical game launch of 2023 overtaking Hogwarts Legacy. The sequel to Nintendo’s best selling Switch game Breath of the Wild, was released on Friday (May 12) and has already received high praise from critics and fans.

The release of the latest edition in the Zelda series has solidified the game as the second biggest Nintendo launch of all time just behind WiiFit. The fitness game for the Wii holds the title of the biggest Nintendo launch down to the revenue produced by the sales of the WiiFit board.

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According to figures by GfK, Tears of the Kingdom has become the eight biggest selling Zelda game of all time, already overtaking Skyward Sword, A Link Between Worlds and The Wind Walker just days after its launch.

Sales of the game have already been 50% more than Hogwarts Legacy which was also set to be one of the biggest games of 2023. However, these figures are just for the boxed, physical sales as Hogwarts Legacy was also released for the PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S|X in February in digital versions.

It’s unknown whether the game outsold Hogwarts Legacy on digital platforms, as Nintendo doesn’t typically share their digital data charts publicly. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has easily been the biggest Zelda launch in Nintendo history, with the game selling over 2.7 times the opening week sales of Breath of the Wild in 2017.

The launch of Tears of the Kingdom has also boosted sales of the game’s predecessor. Breath of the Wild rose by 31% in boxed sales and has climbed to No.8, up from No.19 in the gaming charts for this week.

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The Legend of Zelda has taken the top spot on the gaming charts this week, in a list heavily dominated by Nintendo and knocking Hogwarts Legacy off of the No.1 spot.

UK gaming charts top 10

Here is the UK gaming charts top 10 for the week starting May 15.

(Image: Nintendo)(Image: Nintendo)
(Image: Nintendo)
  1. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
  2. Hogwarts Legacy
  3. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor 
  4. Fifa 23
  5. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
  6. Dead Island 2
  7. Super Mario Odyssey 
  8. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
  9. Animal Crossing: New Horizons 
  10. Minecraft Legends
Related topics:NintendoGaming

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