Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is officially the UK's biggest Zelda launch in history

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

It's official: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is the UK's biggest Zelda launch in history.

As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, that means The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is already the eighth biggest Zelda game of all time in the UK, surpassing even Breath of the Wild to become the biggest Zelda game launch ever.

That means that just from its opening weekend, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has already sold more than games like 2003's The Wind Waker and 2011's Skyward Sword, and is officially the biggest Switch release ever in the UK in terms of revenue.   

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's also boosted The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sales on Nintendo Switch.

It remains to be seen how the game has sold in other territories worldwide, but the early numbers from the UK alone should be good news for Nintendo and Zelda fans alike. 

We already know that Tears of the Kingdom is the best-reviewed game of 2023, topping the charts on aggregate sites like OpenCritic and Metacritic, rated 97 and 96, respectively. Today, however, Metacritic is open to user votes, and over 1700 people have already left a review, giving it an aggregate score of a still good - if slightly less impressive - 8.6 out of 10 at the time of writing, although it's been steadily going up since user reviews opened.

ICYMI, we recently discovered that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom lets you reunite with your horses from Breath of the Wild. If you're using a Switch that contains your Breath of the Wild save data, Tears of the Kingdom gives you access to all of the horses you loved in the first game. All you have to do is capture a wild horse and hot-hoof it to your nearest stables to reunite.

In our The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom review, we called the open-world opus "a rich, robust experience that builds on what came before" and awarded it 4.5 stars out of 5.

"You make the vehicles you want, fight with the weapons you choose, and explore whatever section of the world appeals to you," we wrote. "Sometimes your tinkering is a success, and sometimes you fail spectacularly, but it never stops being fun." 

Zelda Tears of the Kingdom tips | Zelda Tears of the Kingdom abilities | Zelda Tears of the Kingdom weapons | Zelda Tears of the Kingdom vehicles | Zelda Tears of the Kingdom fusions and fuse ability

Vikki Blake
Weekend Reporter, GamesRadar+

Vikki Blake is GamesRadar+'s Weekend Reporter. Vikki works tirelessly to ensure that you have something to read on the days of the week beginning with 'S', and can also be found contributing to outlets including the BBC, Eurogamer, and GameIndustry.biz. Vikki also runs a weekly games column at NME, and can be frequently found talking about Destiny 2 and Silent Hill on Twitter.