Tears of the Kingdom Achieves 50% Higher Launch Sales than Hogwarts Legacy in the UK

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom made its highly anticipated debut on May 12, garnering tremendous success right from the start.

According to new GfK data (via GamesIndustry.biz), the game outperformed its predecessor, Breath of the Wild, with sales figures surpassing Breath of the Wild's opening week sales by 2.7 times, making Tears of the Kingdom the biggest physical launch in the history of the series.

Tears of the Kingdom also became the highest boxed video game launch of the year in the UK – it debuted in the UK retail chart with over a 50% advantage over Hogwarts Legacy.

However, it should be noted that Hogwarts Legacy experienced a strong digital launch and typically, Switch digital sales tend to be lower compared to other platforms. Additionally, Nintendo does not disclose its digital sales data to chart companies, so it remains unknown whether Tears of the Kingdom outsold Hogwarts Legacy overall.

The data reveals that Tears of the Kingdom did not break the record for the highest number of copies sold in the opening week on Nintendo Switch, falling behind last year's release of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet by 12%, however, it became the biggest Switch release in terms of revenue, outperforming Scarlet & Violet's launch sales by 8%.

Interestingly, with the release of Tears of the Kingdom, Breath of the Wild returned to the charts, climbing back into the top 10 and securing the 8th position.

Alongside Tears of the Kingdom, the top three positions in the UK retail charts are taken by Hogwarts Legacy for PS4 and Xbox One, as well as Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

Find more information on last week's physical sales in the UK here and don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.