The Legend of Zelda - Series Sales

This page should not be edited lightly

This page is meant to highlight how each game in the The Legend of Zelda series has sold to date. It sources information from a variety of business-focused publications and catalogues the last-known sales figure for every game in the series. Please note that some of this information (particularly for the older games) may be out of date, as a number of older Zelda titles have been re-released through Nintendo's Virtual Console (or equivalent services), and the company does not share digital sales data for these re-releases. Please do not edit this page if you are not confident in what you are doing and express your concerns on its talk page instead. Finally, if you would like a deeper understanding of why each game performed the way it did, please refer to The Legend of Zelda - A Complete Development History.

The Legend of Zelda - Series Sales

Understanding Sales Data

This section lists the last-known global shipment figure for every mainline game in The Legend of Zelda series. The information in this section has been sourced from a variety of financial publications, events, and developer keynotes including those held by Nintendo.

Q1. What is a global shipment figure?

The "global shipment" for a game refers to the total number of physical copies shipped by its publisher to retail stores (Amazon, GameStop, Best Buy etc.), plus the total number of digital sales to customers via console storefronts (in this case, the Nintendo eShop).

Q2. What is the difference between global shipments and sales?

When publishers use the term "sales" they are are often referring to global shipments (ie; sales to retailers). So, in the event that you hear a publisher talking about sales, it usually means global shipments.

Q3. What is "sell-through"?

Sell-through is the number of units that were actually sold through to consumers by retailers. For example; a publisher ships 10 copies of a game to Amazon and only 8 of those 10 copies are purchased by customers. That means your "sell-through" was 8 copies. (Or a sell-through rate of 80%) Very few publishers ever reveal sell-through or sell-through rate, but it plays a very important role in gauging long-term demand for a game.

Q4. Does this mean global shipments are not an accurate way to measure a game's success?

No, it doesn't mean that. Shipments are based on demand. If a publisher ships more copies of a game, it means there was more demand for it from retailers because it had a high sell-through to customers. Conversely, if a publisher ships fewer copies of a game, it means demand was less because sell-through from retailers to customers was low.

Q5. What happens if a game has a large number of shipments but low sell-through?

It depends on the region. In North America, retailers hold a lot of power. If a publisher over-ships a particular game and the retailer finds it isn't selling, the publisher can be made to buy back the extra copies. This is done because shelf space and warehouse space is valuable, and retailers don't like to hold on to excess stock if they feel it isn't going to sell. (They would much rather stock a different, more successful product instead)

In Japan, the situation is slightly different. Retailers don't have as much power in Japan as they do in North America, and are generally more careful and conservative when placing their orders. Getting publishers to buy back unsold copies is a more difficult prospect in Japan, so if a game isn't selling, the retailer usually puts a steep discount on its price and passes it off as a second-hand copy instead, to help get rid of it. This is colloquially referred to as putting a game in the "bargain bin".

Global Sales

Main Series

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  The Legend of Zelda - Worldwide Sales

Year	Platform	Game	Global Shipments	Type	Source	Relevance to the Brand
1986	NES	The Legend of Zelda	6.51 million	Top-down		The first game in the series; designed to be the polar opposite of Mario. (Learn more)
1987	NES	The Adventure of Link	4.38 million	Top-down		A side-scrolling game developed by a different team than the first. (Learn more)
1991	SNES	A Link to the Past	4.61 million	Top-down		A return to the top-down style; introduced a number of the brand's core elements. (Learn more)
1993	GB	Link's Awakening	3.83 million	Top-down		The first game in the series that emphasized story and eccentric characters. (Learn more)
1998	N64	Ocarina of Time	7.6 million	3D		The first 3D game in the series; laid the foundation for future 3D Zeldas until Breath of the Wild. (Learn more)
2000	N64	Majora's Mask	3.36 million	3D		The first Zelda directed by series handler Eiji Aonuma; the most different from the rest of the series. (Learn more)
2001	GBC	Oracle of Seasons / Ages	3.99 million	Top-down		The start of a co-development partnership with Capcom. (Learn more)
2002	GC	The Wind Waker	4.43 million	3D		A controversial game whose poor sales would lead to Nintendo re-examining the franchise. (Learn more)
2002	GC	Four Swords Adventures	Not available	Top-down		A multiplayer game that sold poorly (<1 million) due to the requirement of a GameCube and multiple GBAs. (Learn more)
2004	GBA	The Minish Cap	1.76 million	Top-down		The final Zelda developed by Capcom, with its director joining Nintendo afterwards. (Learn more)
2006	Wii / GC	Twilight Princess	8.85 million	3D		The second-most successful game in the series, owing to its mature visual style and horseback exploration. (Learn more)
2007	NDS	Phantom Hourglass	4.76 million	Top-down		Introduced a number of new users to the series through its intuitive touch controls. (Learn more)
2009	NDS	Spirit Tracks	2.96 million	Top-down		A less popular follow-up to Phantom Hourglass; involves Zelda accompanying Link all throughout. (Learn more)
2011	Wii	Skyward Sword	3.67 million	3D		Designed to be less sprawling and more dense; its poor sales led to a second re-examination of the series. (Learn more)
2013	3DS	A Link Between Worlds	4.16 million	Top-down		Demonstrated that Nintendo could develop a non-linear Zelda and helped re-build faith in the brand. (Learn more)
2015	3DS	Tri Force Heroes	1.34 million	Top-down		Another multiplayer game. It performed better than Four Swords Adventures but still sold relatively poorly.(Learn more)
2017	NSW / Wii U	Breath of the Wild	21.43 million	3D		NSW: 19.74 million + Wii U: 1.69 million. The new template for Zelda for the foreseeable future. (Learn more)

Interesting trends to note:

• The eleven top-down Zelda games have sold a total of 38.3 million units worldwide. The six 3D Zelda games have sold a total of 43.77 million units worldwide.

• The three best-selling games in the series (Breath of the Wild, Twilight Princess, and Ocarina of Time) all feature the ability to explore a large world, with Link riding on horseback. In addition, they all feature realistically-proportioned characters—including Link himself.

• The lowest-selling Zelda games focus on something other than the exploration of a large world. These include Tri Force Heroes, The Minish Cap, Spirit Tracks, Majora's Mask, and Skyward Sword. Each of these games was structured to be a smaller or more linear experience and the marketing for them focused on traits other than exploration.

• Zelda games that are released towards the end of a console's life cycle tend not to perform well. These include Majora's Mask, The Minish Cap, Spirit Tracks, and Skyward Sword. (That having been said, each of these games also possessed other traits that led to their lower sales)

• Multiplayer Zelda games tend not to perform well. Four Swords Adventures sold poorly and Nintendo has not publicly revealed sales figures for the game. Tri Force Heroes has sold just over 1.34 million units globally and is presently the second-weakest selling game in the series behind Four Swords Adventures.

Remakes

Note: "Remake" in this case refers to a remaster or ground-up remake of the game in question. Re-releases through Virtual Console (etc.) do not count.

Year	Platform	Game	Global Shipments	Source
1998	GBC	Link's Awakening DX	2.22 million
2002	GBA	A Link to the Past & Four Swords	2.82 million
2011	3DS	Ocarina of Time 3D	6.22 million
2013	Wii U	The Wind Waker HD	2.31 million
2015	3DS	Majora's Mask 3D	3.28 million
2016	Wii U	Twilight Princess HD	1.13 million
2019	NSW	Link's Awakening for Nintendo Switch	4.38 million

Interesting trends to note:

• While Twilight Princess is among the highest-selling games in the series, Twilight Princess HD is the lowest-selling of all the remasters. Presumably, this is because The HD remaster of Twilight Princess wasn't as visually striking as the remasters for Ocarina of Time or The Wind Waker, both of which featured significant visual upgrades. Twilight Princess HD was also released on an already unsuccessful platform, towards the end of its life cycle.

• Link's Awakening for Nintendo Switch is the only Zelda remake/remaster to sell more than the original game it was based on. This is partly because it was released after Breath of the Wild (which introduced a large number of new players to the series) and partly due to the strengths of the Switch as a software-selling platform. Finally, the game also features the most significant visual upgrade of any Zelda remake to date.

Spin-offs

Year	Platform	Game	Global Shipments	Source	Notes
2008	Wii	Link's Crossbow Training	5.79 million
2014	Wii U	Hyrule Warriors	1 million
2019	NSW	Cadence of Hyrule	Not available
2008	NSW	Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity	3.5 million

Japanese Sales

Important facts to know about sales data from Japan:

• All figures account for retail sales only. No digital sales data is available. However, digital sales make up a fairly small portion of Japanese videogame sales. (About 10% on average for popular games)

• All Japanese sales data has been provided by videogame publication Famitsu, which tracks games sales across a wide range of Japanese retailers. (Archived by Game Data Library)

• Unlike global sales data, this data represents sell-through to actual customers, not just shipments to retailers.

• Some of the ancillary notes mentioned against each game are from a separate sales tracker, Media Create.

• The Japanese videogame market is much smaller than North America or Europe, which is why sales appear so low in comparison. Over 70% of Nintendo's revenue is from overseas.

Main Series

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  The Legend of Zelda - Japanese Sales

Year	Platform	Game	First Week Sellthrough	Life-to-Date Sellthrough	Notes
1986	FC	The Legend of Zelda	Not available	1,690,000
1987	FC	The Adventure of Link	Not available	1,610,000
1991	SFC	A Link to the Past	Not available	1,160,000
1993	GB	Link's Awakening	Not available	540,000
1998	N64	Ocarina of Time	386,234	1,143,570
2000	N64	Majora's Mask	314,044	601,542	Marketed in Japan with the tagline "This time there's a fear in Zelda."
2001	GBC	Oracle of Seasons	190,029	372,690
2001	GBC	Oracle of Ages	191,802	373,352
2002	GC	The Wind Waker	287,346	742,609	The first Zelda impacted by "gamer drift," the ongoing decline of the Japanese games industry.
2004	GC	Four Swords Adventures	54,782	127,399
2004	GBA	The Minish Cap	92,882	235,400	Released late in the GBA's life, a month prior to the Nintendo DS.
2006	Wii	Twilight Princess	145,068	624,109	Lower long-term sales in Japan due to the Wii audience being largely made up of casual players.
2006	GC	Twilight Princess	Not available	70,000	The GameCube only sold 4 million units in Japan, and Twilight Princess was released very late in its lifecycle.
2007	NDS	Phantom Hourglass	288,282	902,386	Sold better than most Zelda games in Japan due to its accessible touch controls. Popular with women.
2009	NDS	Spirit Tracks	320,940	740,109	Was greatly over-shipped in Japan and quickly bargain-binned by retailers.
2011	Wii	Skyward Sword	194,894	349,143
2013	3DS	A Link Between Worlds	225,418	425,729	Saw a conservative first shipment after Spirit Tracks was over-shipped and Skyward Sword saw low sales.
2015	3DS	Tri Force Heroes	58,594	156,544
2017	NSW	Breath of the Wild	193,060	1,672,847	Designed for the west, but a major success in Japan as well, owing to word-of-mouth and its portable nature.
2017	Wii U	Breath of the Wild	45,052	128,450	The Wii U only sold 3.3 million units in Japan, hence the low sales of most Wii U software.

Important facts to know about the Japanese videogame market:

• In the early 2000s, Japan's videogame industry began to decline. This phenomenon was referred to as "gamer drift"—audiences drifting away from playing games. (Learn more)

• Nintendo has pointed to gamer drift as the cause behind persistently low sales of Zelda and other games in Japan, starting with The Wind Waker.

• Throughout the Wii era, Nintendo was under the impression that Japanese players didn't enjoy getting lost, which led to more linear games designed to combat gamer drift.

• In reality, the situation isn't quite as simple. Of all the Zeldas, Phantom Hourglass and Breath of the Wild have been the most effective at combating gamer drift.

• Despite being a sprawling and fairly open-ended adventure, Phantom Hourglass was popular due to its accessible touch controls and by being on the Nintendo DS.

• Breath of the Wild succeeded in Japan due to a combination of its exciting, new structure combined with ease of portable play on the popular Nintendo Switch.

• Over the last two decades, the only platforms that have consistently managed to combat gamer drift in Japan are portables (Nintendo DS, PSP, 3DS, and Switch).

• The vast majority of Japan's hardware / software sales in the videogame space have come from these portable platforms during this period.

Remakes

Note: "Remake" in this case refers to a remaster or ground-up remake of the game in question. Re-releases through Virtual Console (etc.) do not count.

Year	Platform	Game	First Week Sellthrough	Life-to-Date Sellthrough	Notes
1998	GBC	Link's Awakening DX	49,513	314,309
2003	GBA	A Link to the Past & Four Swords	84,107	293,989
2011	3DS	Ocarina of Time 3D	182,998	636,571	Saw a relatively small first shipment in Japan, possibly due to the way Spirit Tracks was over-shipped and quickly discounted. As LTD sellthrough shows, though, the game went on to have a long tail.
2013	Wii U	The Wind Waker HD	31,154	63,786
2015	3DS	Majora's Mask 3D	236,536	448,258	Sold very similarly to A Link Between Worlds in Japan, both in terms of pre-orders and sales figures, indicating an overlap of audiences.
2016	Wii U	Twilight Princess HD	53,620	89,809
2019	NSW	Link's Awakening for Nintendo Switch	141,375	274,208

Spin-offs

Year	Platform	Game	First-Week Sellthrough	Life-to-Date Sellthrough
2008	Wii	Link's Crossbow Training	89,879	227,621
2014	Wii U	Hyrule Warriors	78,773	126,700
2016	3DS	Hyrule Warriors Legends	54,856	107,312
2018	NSW	Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition	21,064	54,021