Tech

sales are exploding in France, the shortage is near

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom is already a commercial hit. Nintendo’s latest game is selling like hot cakes in France, with already more than 500,000 copies sold. Faced with such success, the main retailers already fear a shortage.

zelda shortage risk
Credits: Nintendo

Like many players, you may have yielded to Princess Zelda’s call this Friday, May 12, 2023 by jumping into The Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom. The new title in Nintendo’s cult saga was eagerly awaited by gamers around the world.

And it is clear that they gave him a warm welcome. In France, the new Switch exclusive comes from exceed 500,000 sales in just a few days. And again, it should be noted that these figures only include physical sales of the game, made either in stores or on e-commerce sites.

Regarding sales in digital format, Nintendo has always preferred to remain silent and never disclosed their performance. If we play the game of comparisons, FIFA 23 had established itself in France at the end of 2022 with 420,000 copies sold during its first week of operation. Globally, however, the numbers have reached stratospheric levels, with over 10 million copies sold.

Also read: Nintendo already has ideas for the sequel to Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

Zelda is a hit in France, Fnac expects a shortage

Nevertheless, Zelda does not have to blush in front of the mastodon of the round ball. For good reason, the endless queues in front of French retailers visible on Twitter have clearly demonstrated the public’s enthusiasm for the title of BigN. As our colleagues from Le Figaro remind us, several Fnac or Micromania stores have decided to open their doors at midnight Thursday for the occasion. And from player memory, we hadn’t seen that for years.

On Friday alone, we sold 100,000 copies of Zelda, including 80,000 pre-orders. This is a historic level for Fnac. Saturday evening, we were at 117,000 sales and we crossed 120,000 on Sunday via our website”, explains Charlotte Massicault, multimedia and video game director of the cultural sign, in the columns of the newspaper.

However, if you haven’t checked out yet, there’s a good chance that the game finds itself out of stock in the coming weeks. In any case, this is what the head of Fnac predicts, who expects a shortage by the end of May 2023. “Nintendo is doing its best, but difficulties are to be expected”, she assures. If we are still waiting for sales figures in the United States and Japan, the latest Zelda recorded a record start with our British neighbors, with 200,000 games sold during the weekend.

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