'Tears of the Kingdom' Spoilers Showing Early Gameplay Footage Leak Ahead of Release

We're about a little over a week away from the highly-anticipated The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom release on May 12; however, without warning, leaks spoiling the very beginning of the game are spreading across the internet.

And these aren't just screenshots of Link and Zelda, but actual cutscene footage followed by gameplay segments making up the early experience of Tears of the Kingdom.

We can only assume this happened due to some players acquiring a physical copy of the ambitious sequel from distributors selling them before the street date.

"Tears of the Kingdom leaked so there are new screenshots floating around," reported games critic @Stealth40k on Twitter. "I've waited 4+ years for the game, we are so close to release. I'm trying so hard not to see ANYTHING."

If you want to avoid spoilers, we recommend staying away from social media and Reddit topics surrounding Tears of the Kingdom until its launch. But for those wanting to learn about them, here's every single one we found that hasn't been scrubbed off the face of the internet by Nintendo yet.

Earlier today, an extensive mega thread on Reddit shared multiple links of early screenshots, gameplay footage, actual cutscenes, and more on the upcoming Tears of the Kingdom.

A few of those sources are getting nuked as you read this, but several players are still finding ways of showing off the starting hours of the game, even going as far as blatantly streaming it on Twitch before getting copyright struck.

"It's a free-for-all right now with Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom spoilers as pirates start streaming the game on Discord and even Twitch," stated Kotaku reporter Ethan Gach on Twitter. "Leak watchers are spamming the chats with copypasta aimed at Nintendo's lawyers."

One Twitter user has published a sped-up cutscene version of what happens to Link and Zelda underground in the beginning hours. Another player posted a screenshot of one of Link's abilities hidden by Nintendo.

These clips mostly seem to spoil the early parts of Tears of the Kingdom, but it does spark concern for later in the week when players with copies get to the juicy areas of the sequel.

Footage of crazy boss fights, rumored dungeons, and more neat setpieces in Tears of the Kingdom could be out in the open before the week of its release.

As expected, Nintendo will retaliate and get the spoilers removed where they can, but hopefully, nothing too major comes out as we're for waiting for the game's release.

Tears of the Kingdom will release on May 12 exclusively for Nintendo Switch.