When you have a franchise as long-running as The Legend of Zelda, you’re inevitably going to start seeing lists comparing the games to one another and seeing which is the “best of the lot.” However, another way to determine success is based on the game’s sales. To that end, as of the last financial briefing, a list was compiled that showcased the top ten best-selling entries in the franchise. To be clear, this list combines the sales across all the systems the titles were on, and the results showcase an interesting gap between the past and the present.
Unsurprisingly, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom dominate the top two spots on the list. The top entry was the first big game on the Switch and was its “Killer App” at launch, which guaranteed it not just success, given how great the game was, but longevity. By that, we mean that as the Switch kept getting millions more players, many realized that this game was the “must-have” of the lot. Based on recent numbers, pretty much 1 in 5 Switch owners have this title.
As for its sequel, while it is 13 million below the #1 slot, that’s hardly a failure. It had the bigger launch of the two due to how many units the Switch had sold by May 2023, and many games would kill to sell 20 million units in over a year. While it is a little surprising that the gap hasn’t closed more since its launch, especially given the numerous awards it got, just like its predecessor, there are various factors that could play into that.
Going down the list, seeing Ocarina of Time at #3 isn’t shocking either. After all, it’s the most iconic entry in the franchise in many people’s eyes. Yes, this is one of many games that did have a port to help “boost its sales,” but it being the #1 title before the Switch entries shows how iconic the game is.
As you go down the list, we have a nice menagerie of titles that have been ported to various systems over the years, including one game getting a full-on remake on the Nintendo Switch, which gave it a huge boost in sales numbers. Then, at the end, we see the original Legend of Zelda title, which is a fitting way to end it.
The question now is how the upcoming entry in the series will do. It’s a unique game, as the latest trailer showed, and it could find itself on this list if luck holds out.
