New “The Legend of Zelda” could overtake “Hogwarts Legacy” to become the #1 selling game this year

Last Updated on 07/03/2023 by てんしょく飯

Hogwarts Legacy” and “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” are attracting huge fan bases.

In just two weeks since their launch, both titles have sold a combined 22 million units, setting a new industry record.

Hogwarts Legacy,” released on February 7 this year, is the number one selling title at the moment, selling 12 million copies in its first two weeks and grossing $850 million (about $122.7 billion). According to Warner Games, this figure was 256% higher than prior estimates.

Despite the controversial racist comments against transgender people made by J.K. Rowling, the author of the “Harry Potter” series on which the game is based, and the boycott of the title by some users (J.K. Rowling was not involved in the development of the game), the sales figures are still strong.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom sold more than 10 million units in just three days after its release on May 12. According to Nintendo, sales have exceeded $700 million (approx. 101.2 billion yen), making it the fastest selling title in the history of The Legend of Zelda series to surpass 10 million units in the past. The title was announced for production in 2019 and won the “Most Anticipated Game” award in 2022; it also won the Best Game award by IGN.

Coming in third and fourth in the ranking are also existing popular series. STAR WARS Jedi: Survivor,” based on George Lucas’s hugely popular Star Wars series, and “BIOHAZARD RE:4,” a remake of the popular “Resident Evil 4” (released in 2005), which sold 4 million copies in its first two weeks.

What were the best-selling game titles in 2023?

The following is a ranking by Circana of the number of game software titles sold (not including downloadable versions) released in 2023 up to May 27, 2012.

Hogwarts Legacy (Warner Games)
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)
star wars jedi: survivor (electronic arts)
BIOHAZARD RE:4 (Capcom)
MLB The Show 23 (San Diego Studio, Sony Interactive Entertainment)

The rankings by Circana do not include the number of downloadable versions sold. If they did, “Tears of the Kingdom” would likely overtake “Hogwarts Legacy” to top the rankings. While Nintendo only publishes sales figures for the packaged version of the game, the title has been the No. 1 download on the Nintendo Switch eStore for more than a month. Some have said that ranking the number of packaged copies sold is outdated, and it is said that 90% of game software sales in the UK are sold as downloads.

Although this year’s ranking only includes titles released in 2023, many games released last year would be ranked if that restriction were removed: “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II,” released in October 2022, was ranked third in the sales ranking for the first half of 2023, while ” FIFA 23″ (released in September 2022) and “Madden NFL 23” (released in August 2022) ranked eighth and tenth, respectively.

There are also rumors of an animated film adaptation of The Legend of Zelda series. Many experts, including film critic Jeff Snider, reported that Universal Pictures has struck a “huge” deal with Nintendo. According to the report, the Legend of Zelda film adaptation will be led by Illumination, the company behind The Super Mario Brothers Movie.