The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the second-biggest launch for Nintendo in the UK

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s (TOTK) release has been a massive success for Nintendo, with it becoming the second-biggest launch in the company’s history within the United Kingdom regarding revenue.

The details:

• TOTK's release was not only the biggest in the UK in 2023, but also one of the biggest for Nintendo overall, trailing only Wii Fit in terms of revenue, according to GfK data (via GamesIndustry.biz). It's worth noting that a large portion of the income from Wii Fit's 2008 launch stems from the inclusion of the balance board controller, which was required for the fitness title to be played, and when this is factored in, TOTK actually outperforms it and becomes the company's biggest launch in the country.
• This has also been the most successful Zelda game launch in the UK, outperforming its predecessor, Breath of the Wild (BOTW), by 2.7 times. This was to be expected given that the Switch has been out for over 7 years, whereas BOTW was a launch title that also saw a release on the Wii U, so a significant portion of fans who did not own the console at launch instead purchased BOTW at a later date. Unsurprisingly, TOTK's May 12 release caused BOTW to reappear in the boxed sales charts, landing at number 8 after a 31% increase in week-on-week sales.
• TOTK has also outsold Hogwarts Legacy, the previous record holder for the most significant 2023 physical UK launch, by more than 50%. However, Hogwarts Legacy had a very successful digital launch. Since Nintendo does not reveal its digital sales figures, it is impossible to say whether or not it outsold the title overall.

More Zelda news:

• TOTK has been met with universal acclaim, receiving perfect or near-perfect scores from several major publications, and fans have given the game a solid 8.6 on Metacritic so far. The game still has a 97 on OpenCritic, making it the site's highest-rated game.
• Following the massive success of The Super Mario Bros. movie, TOTK's producer Eiji Aonuma and game director Hidemaro Fujibayashi recently stated in an interview that they were "interested" in a potential Zelda movie, but made it clear that their interest does not mean a film is currently or is set to be in production.