Key art for Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (2024), Nintendo

A retail insider shared that physical pre-orders for Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom outsold Dragon Age: The Veilguard 20 to 1.

A screenshot from Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (2024), Nintendo

It was previously rumored that Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom outsold Dragon Age: The Veilguard by about 4 to 1. Craig Skistimas, who owns and hosts the Side Scrollers Podcast YouTube channel, shared that his retail source, who manages over 900 stores informed him that Dragon Age: The Veilguard only had 1,069 pre-order in total while Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom had over 4,400 in just the past two weeks.

Skistimas wrote on X, ”FYI, my retail insider says Dragon Age – The Veilguard has 1069 preorders total in their 900+ stores. To put in perspective, Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom has had over 4,400… in the last two weeks.”

A retail source has since contacted That Park Place and shared that while Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom did around 4,400 in just two weeks, in total the game’s “preorders were closer to 20,000.” That means the game sold nearly 20 times more than Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Furthermore, this source shared that Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom actually sold out after it was released and that Nintendo is very pleased with the game’s sales and sees it as “better than expected.”

A screenshot from Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (2024), Nintendo

This information echoes the UK sales charts that saw the game came in second in its debut week behind EA Sports FC 25.

Games Industry Head Christopher Dring also commented, “The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom debuts at No.2 in the UK physical charts this week (Nintendo doesn’t share digital data, sadly). Launch sales are 14% lower than 2019’s Link’s Awakening remake. I suspect in reality it’s pretty close sales-wise between the two.”

Christopher Dring on X

For context, Nintendo reported in their Fiscal Year Ended March 2021 Financial Results report that the 2019 game had lifetime sales of 5.49 million copies globally.

The game sold over half a million copies in its first three days in just Japan and Europe. German website 4 Players reported in October 2019 that the game sold 430,000 copies in 72 hours in Europe while Famitsu reported the game sold 141,375 physical copies in Japan. By December 2019, Famitsu reported that physical copies in Japan had reached 250,947 sold.

A screenshot from Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (2024), Nintendo

While these sales are good for Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, it is not good for Dragon Age: The Veilguard. For comparison, IGN reported in February 2010 that Dragon Age: Origins shipped 3.2 million copies in its first three months.

Dragon Age: Inquisition Executive Producer Mark Darrah also shared in the middle of September that that game had sold over 12 million units and “massively oversold the internal EA projections.”

Mark Darrah on X

Furthermore, digital pre-orders for the game were on par with Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which was recently delayed by Ubisoft with at least one financial analyst speculating it had to do with a lack of a pre-orders.

As you can see below, Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s Deluxe Edition was only 11th on the PlayStation Store’s top Pre-orders list just three spots ahead of Assassin’s Creed Shadows Ultimate Edition. The base game was in the 17th position just four spots ahead of Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ base game.

A screenshot of the PlayStation Store’s top pre-orders taken on September 20th at 11:14 am ET

The game is also only in the 31st position on SteamDB’s Most Wishlisted Upcoming Steam Games list. It only has 63,393 followers and is ranked 84th in top sellers.

Furthermore, a rumor from YouTuber Doctor Disaster also shared that his own retail insider informed him that sales for the game were “piss poor.”

He said, “I have an acquaintance in the retail world, someone who runs nine stores that sells video games. And I am hearing that these ratios that we’re seeing in damn near every video released for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, these ratios are correlating with piss poor pre-sales data. People are not connecting with The Veilguard because Dragon Age games are supposed to be dark and gritty and this just looks completely soft.”

What do you make of Nintendo’s Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom’s pre-orders outselling Dragon Age: The Veilguard by 20 times?