Zelda Tears of the Kingdom has been smashing the competition in France since its release on May 12. Nintendo can rub its hands for this critical and commercial success.
That’s it, The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom is finally here. More than 6 years after Breath of the Wild, Link is back in an open world adventure of incredible richness. The sequel achieves the feat of being as exceptional as its illustrious elder, often considered the best game in history. Both on social networks and in points of sale, there is only one for him since his release the 12th from last. The UK, Zelda Tears of the Kingdom quite simply achieves the best start of the year for a physical game, all platforms combined, and is already breaking records. But what about us? Know that even in France, almost no one has resisted it since its launch.
Zelda Tears of the Kingdom met la barre très haut en France
According to Oscar Lemaire, often well informed when it comes to figures concerning the video game industry, Zelda Tears of the Kingdom sold 500,000 copies in its launch week. An impressive figure, especially since it only includes physical games. The feat must then be all the more impressive if we add the sales made on the Nintendo e-Shop. To compare, ” it’s a significantly higher start than the last Pokémon. It’s more than the launch of Red Dead Redemption II or the latest FIFAs », Explains the analyst. FIFA 23, which was the best-selling game of 2022 in France with its 1.7 million copies, had sold 420,000 units in physical format during its launch weekend on three different platforms.
A historic record in France for Nintendo, but GTA 5 still holds the record for the best start for a video game in France. In its first week of release, in September 2013, Rockstar’s blockbuster sold 1.1 million units on PS3 and Xbox 360. It also holds the single-platform record with around 850,000 PS3 sales. . Tears of the Kingdom is therefore quite far from the top, but its performance is still exceptional, especially in the current context.
Other records to hunt for the already cult game?
The figures of Tears of the Kingdom can hardly be compared with those of Breath of the Wild. The latter was part of the launch games for the Nintendo Switch, released like it on March 3, 2017. At the time, Nintendo indicated that out of 105,000 console buyers, 96,000 had taken Zelda Breath of the Wild In France. These figures only concern the Switch, because, we would tend to forget it, but BOTW was also released on Wii U. Tears of the Kingdom will he be able to break another record, that of the best-selling game on Switch internationally? For now, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe remains unbeatable, with nearly 50 million units sold worldwide. A feat that seems almost impossible to match.
Zelda Tears of the Kingdom is however a victim of its own success. Expect to be out of stock at major distributors by the end of May. “Nintendo is doing its best but you have to expect difficulties“, explains Charlotte Massicault gaming director of Fnac with the Figaro. Since the beginning of the year, Nintendo has already been forced to revise upwards the quantities to be produced on the French market, as the level of pre-orders reached new heights.
