To no one’s surprise, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was the best-selling game in the United States for the month of May 2023. As per data provided by Circana (published by Circana analyst Mat Piscatella on Twitter), the open world title, which sold over 10 million units worldwide within 3 days of release, not only did it top the charts for May, it has also instantly become the second-highest selling game of the year, behind Hogwarts Legacy– and unlike most other games, the Nintendo title’s data does not even include digital sales.
Interestingly enough, the excitement surrounding Tears of the Kingdom also brought about a boost in sales for its predecessor, with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild re-entering the top 20 at No. 13. Elsewhere, other major 2023 releases like Hogwarts Legacy, Resident Evil 4, Star Wars Jed: Survivor, and Dead Island 2 rank high in the charts as well.
On the hardware front, the Nintendo Switch was the best-selling console of the month in US in terms of both unit and dollar sales, no doubt aided significantly by the launch of Tears of the Kingdom. Switch consumer spending was higher than it’s ever been for the platform in any month of May, with unit sales being the second-highest by that same metric, trailing behind May 2020.
The PS5, meanwhile, is still the best-selling console for the year so far in terms of both unit and dollar sales. The PS5 and Switch both enjoyed double-digit growth growth in May, making up on the hardware spending front for declining sales for Xbox Series X/S.