The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has become the fastest-selling title in the history of the franchise after selling over 10 million copies in three days.
The open-world adventure launched on May 12, 2023, for Nintendo Switch. The game is a direct sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which according to Nintendo’s own figures has sold almost 30 million copies to-date.
For context, it took Breath of the Wild around a year to deliver 10 million sales, although it’s worth remembering that game launched alongside the Switch itself, so there were far fewer consoles in hands at that point.
Tears of the Kingdom has been inundated with praise since launching last week, with critics and consumers alike praising Nintendo’s systems-first approach to design.
During a recent interview with The Verge series producer Eiji Aonuma and director Hidemaro Fujibayashi said they wanted to create a follow-up to Breath of the Wild to give players the chance to experience that world again through fresh eyes.
“We really wanted to provide an experience that’s really new so that people who have spent a lot of time in Breath of the Wild, when they come back, they can say, ‘You know, I really felt as if I had lost my memories of Breath of the Wild,'” said Fujibayashi.
That desire to wipe the slate clean and grant players their very own Eternal Sunshine moment led the team to create Tears of the Kingdom’s brilliant (and rather chaotic) building mechanics, which can be used to cobble together everything from colossal log bridges and rickety vessels to cannon-toting airships and bipedal mechs.