Nintendo announced that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has sold 18.51 million copies as of June 30. The company released its financial results for the second quarter of 2023, which covered April, May, and June of this year. According to Nintendo, Tears of the Kingdom accounted for around half of the company’s first-party games sold this fiscal year.
As Nintendo notes, most of the consumers who purchased Tears of the Kingdom had also played Breath of the Wild. However, as time has passed, Nintendo has seen “a growing percentage of purchases” by consumers who have not played the first installment. Tears of the Kingdom is already one of the year’s bestselling games, outpacing the likes of Diablo 4 and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor on physical copies alone.
For context, Breath of the Wild, which launched in 2017, has sold around 30.65 million copies. In just under two months, Tears of the Kingdom has already sold half as many copies as Breath of the Wild, meaning it could very well outsell its predecessor if it continues at this pace.
Tears of the Kingdom is the company’s second-biggest launch ever, trailing only Pokemon Scarlet and Violet (which reached 20.61 million in just six weeks). This also makes Tears of the Kingdom the ninth-best-selling Switch game of all time.
Nintendo has had a strong year so far, as the Switch has reached 129.53 million units sold, trailing only the Nintendo DS (154 million units) and the PS2 (155 million units). This comes after reports that Nintendo is considering releasing a new Zelda game for the Switch every year.