It took just two weeks for Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom to become 2023's second best-selling game

Zelda Tears of the Kingdom review — (Image credit: Nintendo)

With just two weeks of sales, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom became 2023's second best-selling game of the year.

The data was revealed earlier today on June 27 by the NPD Group executive director Mat Piscatella. The analyst reveals that, after Tears of the Kingdom's physical sales for May 2023 were tallied, it became the second best-selling game of 2023 so far, despite only launching on one platform and only being available to buy for 19 days.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was the best-selling game of May 2023, instantly becoming the #2 best-selling title of 2023 year-to-date, despite only physical sales from Nintendo being included in the best-selling titles charts.June 27, 2023

This is without digital sales being provided from Nintendo meaning that Tears of the Kingdom undoubtedly sold far better than how Piscatella is being forced to portray it here. That's just how Nintendo operates unfortunately - we only ever know the game sales data that the company opts to reveal.

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If you're wondering what the overall best-selling game of 2023 is, that title belongs to Hogwarts Legacy. However, Piscatella doesn't reveal whether the data for Hogwarts Legacy includes digital and physical sales, but if it doesn't include the latter, there's a chance Tears of the Kingdom might've outsold it.

The Breath of the Wild sequel has already been a runaway success for Nintendo, shipping over 10 million copies worldwide in just three days. For some added context, that's basically one third of Breath of the Wild's lifetime sales of 30 million in the six years since its launch.

The Legend of Zelda series has existed for a staggering 35 years at this point, and it's fair to say it's never been bigger than it is right now. From Nintendo's perspective, the wait of over five years for Tears of the Kingdom was a prolonged one, but it's safe to say it's absolutely been worth it.

Check out our guide to the best Zelda Tears of the Kingdom armor locations guide if you want to track down the very best gear Hyrule has to offer for Link.

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.