Tears of the Kingdom is Nintendo’s biggest Switch game

That's some big tears

Nintendo posted the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom eShop listing after February’s Nintendo Direct, and while it’s all pretty standard digital storefront stuff, one thing stands out: the file size. The Tears of the Kingdom file size makes it one of Nintendo’s biggest Switch games, clocking in at 18.2 gigabytes.

For reference, Breath of the Wild was just over 13 GB on the Switch and Wii U, while Xenoblade Chronicles 3 – a massive, 80-hour RPG also developed by Nintendo and Monolith Soft – is 14.3 GB. The closest first-party game in terms of file size is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which, with all DLC installed, comes in at just over 17 GB.

Nintendo developed a reputation as compression wizards over the years, able to cram some remarkable creations into tiny packages that take up little space on your system or a cartridge. Just look at Super Mario Odyssey, the entirety of which is less than six gigabytes.

Seeing Tears of the Kingdom take up almost half again as much space as its prequel comes as something of a surprise. Nintendo hasn’t shown much of the game outside a handful of teasers, but what we have seen of the new Hyrule didn’t seem like it included much new space outside a few floating islands and maybe one or two underground areas.

We won’t have to wait much longer to find out what other surprises Nintendo’s packed into that 18 GB. Tears of the Kingdom launches May 12, 2023.