Preliminary figures released by the Japanese Cabinet Officer today report that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom may well have helped boost Japan's GDP (gross domestic product), Japanese outlet Mainichi Shinbun reports. (via Forbes).
Nintendo's highly-anticipated first-party title launched back in May 2023 and broke sales records all across the world, and it seems that those numbers have been reflected in Japan's semi-durable goods sales — which include clothes, entertainment, and video games.
The report covers the period of April 2023 to June 2023, and compared to the previous quarter, spending in this sector has risen by 2.8%. That's despite a drop of 0.5% in private consumption. Mainichi says that a Cabinet Office official associates this increase with video games specifically.
As of 30th June, Tears of the Kingdom has sold a massive 18.51 million units worldwide. The open-world sequel managed to shift 10 million of these units in the first three days of its release alone. It became the fastest-selling Zelda game ever and the fastest-selling Nintendo game in North America ever.