Even in 2023, Zelda is making sure that the last-gen Switch stays strong in the current-gen console competition, still effortlessly rivalling Sony’s PS5 and Microsoft’s Xbox X/S with a record quarter for Nintendo. The sequel to 2017’s universally acclaimed Breath of the Wild skyrocketed the company’s profits by a whopping 82%. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which was released earlier this year, sold around 18.51 million units as recorded up until June 30, 2023.
Nintendo claims that in just three months, Zelda has made the company’s first-party software reach unprecedented global numbers during the first quarter of its release, something that hasn’t happened since the Switch was originally launched six years ago in 2017.
Because of the game, the company was able to surpass its sales from three years ago, specifically when Animal Crossing: New Horizons was released in 2020 just at the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown, resulting in an amazing 82% first-quarter profit totaling 185.4bn yen, which is equivalent to $1.294bn. In the three-month period since the game’s release, Nintendo has shipped 3.91m Switch units, which is a 13.9% annual increase, elevating the console’s total lifetime sales to 129.53m.
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In fact, most of the sold units- a high 86% to be exact- were the OLED models of the Nintendo Switch, along with the special edition released in April that included Tears of the Kingdom. According to Nintendo, the game sold 10 million copies globally in just three days after it was released on May 12. Those are crazy numbers because it is historically the fastest-selling instalment in the Zelda game series, while also being the quickest-selling Nintendo game ever in America and Europe.
Sharing information from its latest results, Nintendo claimed that Tears of the Kingdom‘s sell-through was equal to around 50% of the company’s first-party software that was sold this year in total. To put things into perspective, let’s look at the most financially successful Nintendo Switch games to see how the newest Zelda game is performing. The following data is up to date until June 30, 2023, and compares each title’s growth in sales from March 2023.
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2nd Zelda Title in the Top 10 Best-Selling Switch Games List
Here’s how Tears of the Kingdom ranks among the best-selling Switch games of all time:
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with 55.46m sales (+1.67m since March)
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons, with 42.79m sales (+0.58m since March)
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with 31.77m sales (+0.68m since March)
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with 30.65m sales (+0.84m since March)
- Super Mario Odyssey with 26.44m sales (+0.68m since March)
- Pokémon Sword and Shield with 25.92m sales (+0.1m since March)
- Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, with 22.66m sales (+0.56m since March)
- Super Mario Party with 19.39m sales (+0.35m since March)
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom with 18.51m sales (released in May)
- New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe with 16.17m sales (+0.76m since March)
Nintendo said that fans of the previous Zelda game, Breath of the Wild, were the “primary driver” for Tears of the Kingdom‘s success, but continued that with each passing week, a “growing” number of newer players, who have never played the last one, has been observed. According to the company’s annual financial forecast, 15 million consoles will be sold by March 31, 2024, which is a significant 16.5% decrease, but that is to be expected since the Switch has been out for about seven years now.
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