The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Sells Over 10 Million in First Three Days

By Tim Bowman, May 17, 2023

The new Zelda is breaking records for Nintendo.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom sold over 10 million copies worldwide on the Nintendo Switch in just three days since its launch, Nintendo announced on Wednesday. The game released on May 12 and is now the fastest-selling game in the history of the franchise.

Tears of the Kingdom sold 4.4 million copies in the Americas and 2.24 million in Japan. In the U.K. the game is also one of the biggest Nintendo releases ever. It’s already the second-best selling game of all-time in the Zelda franchise, behind 2017’s Breath of the Wild. In the Americas Tears of the Kingdom is also the fastest-selling Nintendo game in history.

The game is a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild. It’s the first Nintendo-developed game to be priced at $69.99. Nintendo followed other companies like Sony, Microsoft and various third-party publishers who raised prices for their releases in the last few years. A special edition of the game retails for $129.99.

Tears of the Kingdom’s reviews have been high, with many calling it the best game ever made or one of the greatest ever released.

The Legend of Zelda games have been developed by the same team and leadership for many years and iterations across different consoles. Hidemaro Fujibayashi is again Tears of the Kingdom‘s director, who has directed several games in the series since 2001 with Oracle of Seasons/Ages on Game Boy Color and the mainline titles in 2011 with Skyward Sword. The game’s producer is Eiji Aonuma, who is also returning from that role in Breath of the Wild. Aonuma has worked on every Zelda since 1996’s Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64 where he was that game’s director.

Breath of the Wild launched on March 3, 2017, the same day the Switch console released. That game sold over 3.84 million copies worldwide in its first month across the Switch and Wii U. At the time it was the fastest-selling Zelda game and Nintendo launch title. Breath of the Wild has sold 29.81 million copies for the Switch and 31.51 million in total with the Wii U version as of March 2023. The Nintendo Switch has sold over 125 million units since its launch.

Other Nintendo games like Pokemon Scarlet & Violet that released last November sold over 10 million in three days, making them the fast-selling Nintendo games of all-time until Tears of the Kingdom. A primarily single-player game like Elden Ring sold over 12 million copies in its first three weeks after its release in February 2022 but is also multiplatform. Hogwarts Legacy sold over 12 million in its first two weeks this February but is another multiplatform game. God of War Ragnarok sold 5.1 million its first week across PS5 and PS4 last November, making it the fastest first-party release for Sony. Sony’s open world game Horizon Forbidden West sold over 8.4 million copies since February 2022. With Horizon Zero Dawn, the franchise has sold over 32.7 million since February 2017. Horizon Zero Dawn launched a week before Breath of the Wild.

Tears of the Kingdom is the new format for Zelda games going forward with its open world design, according to Aonuma.

There’s also a special edition, Tears of the Kingdom-themed Switch OLED console, a special Pro controller, a new Link amiibo figure and other new items tied to the game.

The Legend of Zelda franchise started in August 1987 on the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America and in February 1986 in Japan on the Famicom Disk System.

Watch one of the game’s trailers: