Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's sales success may have boosted Japan's GDP

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has already reached an incredible amount of success, selling 18.5 million units in roughly a month and a half. The game has been a mega-hit all around the world, including Japan, where the game moved 2.2 million units in just 3 days. Now we’re seeing just how big of an impact that release may have had on Japan in general.

Japan’s Cabinet Office recently released the GDP for Japan from April to June 2023, and it shows that semi-durable goods, which fall under the largest component of the GDP – personal consumption, saw a 2.8% increase compared to the previous quarter. There are a number of reasons why this figure could have jumped considerably, but it appears that Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s sales explosion was a major driver.

Taking things a step further, the Cabinet Office cited game software as a contributor to this growth, but failed to mention games specifically. There were definitely other big-name games that launched in Japan during this period, but none of them made anywhere near the impact that Tears of the Kingdom did.