It’s no secret that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo’s earth-shattering sequel to one of the Switch’s most beloved games, sold incredibly well when it launched last month on May 12th.
Just how big it was though, has been revealed via reports from video game sales analyst group Circana (previously NPD), who recently published the sales data for sales of games in May. Unsurprisingly, Tears of the Kingdom absolutely took out the top spot for the month (despite only being available for 20 days out of the 31) and became the only new release game in May to enter the top 20 sellers for the year, but it also managed to climb its way right up to the 2nd spot. The only game it sits behind currently is Hogwarts Legacy, which had its initial release all the way back in February, is now available on five different platforms and has one big advantage over Zelda in the charts – digital sales.
Making the feat all the more impressive, Tears of the Kingdom’s sales numbers don’t include digital sales at all.
Zelda fever also fuelled an overall spending boost for video games in May, up 12% comparatively for a total of $4.1 billion USD, according to Circana’s Executive Director, Mat Piscatana. The Switch became the top-selling hardware for May 2023 in both units and dollar sales, although the PS5 still leads console sales for 2023 and the PS5 DualSense Edge controller is top of the pops for gaming accessory dollar sales.
May 2023 US Video Game Market Highlights from Circana – May 2023 U.S. consumer spending on video game content, hardware and accessories totaled $4.1 billion, a 12% increase when compared to a year ago. Spending gains were seen across Content, Hardware, and Accessories. pic.twitter.com/5puAhTzvzV
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) June 27, 2023
In total, the top-selling games for May 2023, and for 2023 overall as reported by Circana are:
Best Selling Games May 2023
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
- Dead Island 2
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- MLB The Show 23
- FIFA 23
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- Resident Evil 4
- Far Cry 6
Best Selling Games Of 2023
- Hogwarts Legacy
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
- Resident Evil 4
- MLB The Show 23
- Dead Island 2
- FIFA 23
- Dead Space
- Madden NFL 23
