US charts: in May, Zelda and the Switch panic the counters
And of course Nintendo should be congratulated for the simply phenomenal launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Credited with over 4 million copies sold in the Americas just days after its launch, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is also the fastest-selling Nintendo game of any console in the United States. So even if Circana’s ranking only takes into account boxed sales in the case of Nintendo games, no one will be surprised to see the latest Zelda directly catapulted to the second rank of the best-selling games since the beginning of the year, only Hogwarts Legacy: The Legacy of Hogwarts being able to resist it for the moment. Of course, downloads are counted in the case of the WB Games game.
Zelda facing the desert
Perhaps aware of the earthquake that Nintendo’s release of the game would cause, industry players were careful not to waste big cartridges in May, as can be seen from the absence of new faces. Unless you want to consider Redfall as a big title, but between a deplorable critical reception and its presence in the Game Pass subscription, not to see Arkane Studios’ game in the top 20 is nothing particularly shocking. The only little surprise finally comes from the strong comeback of Far Cry 6, which slips into the top 10 while it was hovering around 50th place a month earlier. Note also the return of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, 28th the previous month, which comes to greet its little brother. Back also for God of War Ragnarok, which however had not gone very far since the Santa Monica Studio game was 21st the month before. Helped by the huge success of the film, Mario appears four times in this ranking, so we can’t wait to see how many places the plumber will occupy at the end of the year with the releases of Super Mario Bros. Wonder on October 20 and Super Mario RPG on November 17.
The box of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has a direct effect on the Switch, which seizes the sales headache for the month of May, both in volume and in value, with a double-digit increase in sales compared to the previous one. last year. Despite its age, the Nintendo console achieved the best month of May in its history in value and its second best month of May in volume (after May 2020). Faced with such a boost, the PlayStation 5 must bow respectfully but also behaves very well with a three-digit growth in its turnover compared to last year, when it still suffered from a significant shortage. What compensate for the drop in sales of the Xbox Series and allow the month of May 2023 (338 million dollars) to display the biggest sales of consoles since May 2008 (427 million dollars). On the accessories side, the DualSense Edge controller remains the item that generated the most dollars in May and all of 2023, but the craze for Zelda also heralded the return of amiibo to the top of accessory sales. For Link, this is what is called winning on all counts.
