Link’s latest adventure, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, has already proven to be a massive success for Nintendo. The company announced in its November 7 earnings report that the open-world adventure game has sold nearly 20 million copies.
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Tears of the Kingdom (TotK) is the sequel to 2017's critically acclaimed Breath of the Wild (BotW). Released in May 2023 as a Nintendo Switch exclusive, Link’s latest escapade sees our hero using a host of new abilities and equipment to bring down Ganon and save Princess Zelda. Although it’s not too dissimilar from its predecessor, TotK’s innovative new mechanics, heartfelt moments, and tough bosses clearly resonated with fans.
“Regarding the Nintendo Switch business during the second quarter (April through September 2023), each title released this fiscal year has sold well, with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (released in May) posting sales of 19.50 million units,” the company wrote in its latest earnings report. This data doesn’t include sales for October or November, so that figure may already be significantly higher.
If these figures are anything to go by, it’s fair to assume that Nintendo plans to keep the current formula intact for mainline installments of the franchise. Drawing clear inspiration from the success of sandbox games like Minecraft and the emergent gameplay design reminiscent of Grand Theft Auto, TotK allows players to create bizarre contraptions and find unconventional solutions to puzzles and battles. Those mechanics encourage players to share their experiences on social media, possibly bolstering its popularity even further.
Who knows? Maybe Nintendo will continue to remaster and rerelease older Zelda games, like it did with Link’s Awakening in 2019. But that’s probably not going to be the franchise’s main priority in the immediate future.
Nintendo didn’t just give TotK its flowers in the earnings report. The company also shouted out other successes, including Pikmin 4 (2.61 million units since its July release) and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (57.01 million units in its entire lifetime). Elsewhere, Nintendo touched on hardware and software sales as a whole, saying that the Nintendo Switch sales have increased to 6.84 million units year-on-year while digital sales soared to 97.08 million units year-on-year. In other words, Nintendo’s having a better-than-expected 2023, despite the aging Switch hardware.
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This all comes as Nintendo is in the midst of ongoing rumors about the Switch 2, which allegedly is comparable in power to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Recent rumors suggest it could launch in the second half of 2024, with a design that may look a lot like the DS handheld. Nintendo’s President Shuntaro Furukawa dismissed those rumors as “inaccurate” during a press conference accompanying the earnings report, according to the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun.