Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Is The Best-Selling Zelda Game Of All Time, Kind Of

I wouldn't mind if Twilight Princess sold even more... As a Switch port

What do these numbers become if we add Ocarina 3D and Majora 3D to the mix?

How does 8.85m + 1.23m = 10.80m? Think you forgot a 0 and meant 10.08m.

@SmaggTheSmug I’m hoping we get a HD skyward sword at some point on the switch

@Mathias_Wolfbrok A good point. Isn't OoT with the 3D remaster over 13m or so?

I hope a GOTY Edition of BOTW gets announced at E3.

Fantastic for the Zelda series to be selling so well; though ironically it's two best selling entries are both games I'm not too fond of myself. With Breath of the Wild, the Zelda series seems to be heading in a direction that's simply not for me, but ah well. It happens sometimes and the game's still appear to be of good enough quality for others to enjoy.

@Mr_Pepperami let this be true

Breath of the Wild has a shot at selling 20 million copies LTD, though that will take several years.

The game shipped 1.8 million copies on Switch alone during Q1 2018, so the incredible momentum is still there, even a year after launch.

I won't buy Breath of the Wild until I can play it on my 16K television brain implant.

@Damo Your article is now perfect ^^

@Damo Nice, thanks

there was also a special edition of the windwaker on the gamecube, wich had a copy of ocarina of time.

and i dont see anything about the 2d game link to the past, wich had so many ports and let alone on the snes sold millions of copies.

And what about VC sales of Ocarina of Time on the Wii & Wii U? Those included?

I wonder how much A Link to the Past has sold as its had SNES, GBA, Wii VC, Wii U VC and 3DS VC releases so far.

I'm almost sure it will sell 2 more millions, I mean, it's still in the tops, right?

Shouldn't Ocarina of Time figures also include Gamecube and Wii/U VC sales figures?

@FX102A
indeed.

its either ocarina of time or link to the past.
those two games have been available on almost every system.
i think link to the past holds the scepter, it was even on gameboy advanced and ds and 3ds

Something is wrong in this article. It's not the Switch 2 in 2023, it's the New Switch One 4 Pro Plus X that will be released next year

@PALversusNTSC Was ALttP on DS? Don’t recall that.

Awesome result for the best "Zelda" game of all time.

**** imho ****

Do we have numbers on sales of Virtual Console titles (Ocarina of Time on Wii & Wii U) and sales of Gamecube's two releases of Ocarina of Time (the Master Quest bundle and the Zelda 1+Zelda 2+Ocarina of Time+Majora's Mask bundle)?

Because if we're going to count re-releases, remasters, and remakes, we should count all re-releases, remasters, and remakes. OT3DS and TPHD weren't the only additionals for those two games.

I've no doubt that Breath of the Wild will surpass these, however. I know people who haven't ever desired to play a Zelda game before fall in love with the game. It's at least as transformative a title as Ocarina of Time was.

BotW 4k? Switch 2? 2023? What is he on about?

@mailman I envy you That first 100hours are joyous

@shani He got confused and thought he was writing about H:ZD 4K on PS5 on his other website, it was an honest mistake. 😉

They already had an Explorer Edition this past holiday, I don't think a Complete Edition is out of the question for this holiday. 17.75m Switch, which will sell another 45m at least. Zelda is going to bevselling for a long while, it's a great game. It may even sell 2m more when it becomes a $30 Switch Select in 2 more years.

"It's quite possible that Breath of the Wild - which is still selling - will add more to its haul over the next 12 months. It might not top 12.74 million"

Seems possible still. 18 million console sales to date and they're forecasted a further 20 million for the year. In the long run it may pick up those extra sales, especially when 13 months out the game still shows up in top ten sales charts. If the Switch goes on to be a 100+ million unit console then I don't see why they can't grab another 4 million sales of Zelda over the lifetime. Mario Kart and Odyssey's lifetime sales will be bonkers.

Eh, give it a few months and BotW will be the #1 selling Zelda game on a single console.

@shani I quess he's still waiting for Nintendo NX

Game deserves to be #1. Still amazing after playing it for a year now. Helping my 7 yr old experience Zelda for the first time recently and am still discovering new things.

As one of the few that still hasn't played BotW since I'm holding out for when I get a Switch (Still playing catch-up with other series entries on different platforms), I guarantee that total will climb by at least one.

When Nintendo sold 10 million copies of a game and the cost of that game is US$60... that means they earned $600 million from that game alone. I wonder how many Nintendo games earned over $1 billion? Must be a lot.

@Souldin Shouldn't that tell you something? The franchise has to evolve. You all are stuck in the past.

'It might not top 12.74 million'

Where did that number come from?

Those who want a future 3D Zelda games to be like the pre-Breath of the Wild Zelda entries are going to be very disappointed.

@Damo The BOTW numbers from the financial report are only reporting physical/retail copies sold, correct?

@EasyDaRon I agree with you. BotW is the worst Zelda-like game, but at the same time, it is better than every other Zelda game overall, if that makes sense.

@kopaka It sold an extra 1.7 million between January and the end of March this year so the sky's pretty much the limit. I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually reaches over 15 million on the Switch alone by the end of the Switch's lifepan.

Well deserved sales for a phenomenal game.

Haha can’t wait to play BoTW 4K on my Switch 2!

@Dogorilla That's what I'm wondering.

Switch 2 won't be 4K, probably 1440p 30-60fps.

@EasyDaRon
Blasphemy

"it might not top 12.74 million"

Well why would it have to?

Like @Dogorilla and @Tanooki12 , I'm seeing the largest number you mentioned for any other Zelda as being 11.6 million.

"it might not top 12.74 million"

Well why would it have to?

Like @Dogorilla and @Tanooki12 , I'm seeing the largest number you mentioned for any other Zelda as being 11.6 million.

That's amazing considering the rich history has had with the 3D games. It also shows that many people have not played one of the greatest games ever made in OoT. With that being said BoTW will easily beat that number as it's still selling in Japan and the US at a good pace.

@Jutandy TP and WW would be great, I'm sure they will be coming to Switch.

Anyone notice that BOTW on Wii U outsold TP on GC? Shows that GC and Wii U were really, REALLY similar on many, MANY levels. Both were considered commercial failures during their times, both lost 3rd party support, both were followed by massive successors, both had exclusives ported to their successor(s). The GC is as much a "failure" to Nintendo as Wii U was.

@Nincompoop only bundled games made them $1 billion, because their highest selling game unbundled was SMB 3, and at $50 a pop (before sales decreases over time), it only sold 18 million, meaning it fell short of $1 billion.

" Switch 2 in 2023" more like Switch Lite, there's no way Switch only gets a 5 year lifespan, they've set it up for it to get 7 or 8 before its successor comes out- even Kimishima and Miyamoto said Nintendo wants more than 5 years like Wii U got.

Funny article. Zelda Botw is at 13.6 million now.

Legs for days.