Ever since its first title on the NES back in 1986,The Legend of Zeldafranchise has been a huge success for Nintendo, selling just shy of 110 million copies for the entire series. In August of this year,The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildranked 6th on the monthly top ten list of best-selling Nintendo Switch titles.According to The NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella, that means thatBreath of the WildÂhas been on the top ten list every single month since its March 2017 release, which is a period of 42 consecutive months where it has never charted lower than 7th.
While it’s no surprise that the game is popular because newÂZeldaÂgames usually sell several million copies,ÂBreath of the Wild’s continued popularity is something no one at Nintendo could have expected.
The previous best-selling entry in the series,The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time,sold 13 million unitsbetween it’s original Nintendo 64 release in 1998 and it’s 3DS remaster from 2011. The Switch edition ofBreath of the WildÂalonehas sold 18.6 million units, making it the fourth best-selling game on the console. Factoring in the additional 1.6 million copies sold on the WiiU,Breath of the Wildhas sold over 20 million units, easily towering over the 13 million sold byOcarina of Time.
The only thing that might be able to dethroneÂBreath of the Wildis itshighly anticipated sequel that was teased at E3 last year. However, if past sales tell us anything about future sales, direct sequels toÂZeldagamesnever sell quite as well as the original. That said ifBreath of the Wild’s sequel only sells 10 million copies, half of what the original sold, I can’t imagine that Nintendo would be disappointed.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildis out now on Nintendo Switch and Wii U. If you havenât picked up the game yet you cangrab the game physically on Amazonto help support DualShockers. For more onÂBreath of the Wild 2make sure to check outthis article on its rumored production.
