Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Breaks Series Records, Sells 10m In 3 Days
Over 10 million of your bodies were extremely ready for a new "Zelda" game. Nintendo has announced that "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom" has become the fastest-selling game in the franchise's 35-year history, breaking through the aforementioned mark within its first three days of availability.
From that count, the Americas accounted for more than 4 million units moved, making it the fastest-selling Nintendo game ever in that region. Those look like "Pokemon" numbers, but "Zelda" seems to be building a mainstream audience on the back of increasingly compelling open-world adventures.
"Tears of the Kingdom" has earned near-perfect review scores across the board: Metacritic currently shows an aggregate score of 96 based on 93 critic reviews. A plethora of outlets awarded it 10/10-equivalent scores for building on the previous title, "Breath of the Wild," with new and refined gameplay systems, more interesting baddies for Link to slay, an open world even more vastly designed than its predecessor's — as well as the continuation of what's shaping up to be one of gaming's best stories ever told.
The game isn't without its faults, however. It suffers from some of the same technical issues as "Breath of the Wild," namely inconsistent framerates. However, you can also consider that a testament to the developers' intent to squeeze more out of the Nintendo Switch's aging hardware than most ever attempt. "Tears of the Kingdom" pushes the handheld-console hybrid to its absolute limits in all facets.
Zelda's open-world approach is going mainstream
The "Legend of Zelda" series has evolved considerably since its 8-bit beginnings. Based on average review scores, the consensus before this console generation was that the series reached its height during the 128-bit era with the GameCube's "Wind Waker." "Twilight Princess" was also a transformative experience that reimagined the Hyrulean universe with more mature undertones.
It felt like we suffered through a long drought until "Skyward Sword" hit the scene in 2011, and then the Nintendo Switch's "Breath of the Wild" took our breath away in 2017. It trounced every other game in the series with a vast open world to explore, teeming with interesting puzzles and challenging enemies, a simple and engaging combat system to slay them, and memorable characters cast in a heart-wrenching story.
Following the billion-dollar box office success of "The Super Mario Bros. Movie," many have asked Nintendo to test the mainstream appeal of "The Legend of Zelda" with its own animated film. Longtime fans have begged Nintendo to start a Nintendo Cinematic Universe, if you will, and "Zelda" has been the clear favorite for Nintendo's next experiment. With the critical and commercial success of the latest entry, there's potential that it can potentially transcend beyond gaming.