Nintendo has announced that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has sold 8.48 million copies on Nintendo Switch and another 1.5 million copies on Wii U, for a combined total of nearly 10 million units sold worldwide.
Beyond being an impressive sales milestone on its own, the announcement is even more notable, because it now means it is the best-selling Zelda game of all-time.
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In the process of becoming the best-selling Zelda game ever it passed 2006’s The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, the previous record-holder with 8.85 million copies. However, if you factor in sales of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess‘ Wii U Update, dubbed Twilight Princess HD, it is actually still on top thanks to 1.23 million sales from said updated version. Combined with the original release, Twilight Princess has a sales total of 10.08 million, which puts it just barley above Breath of the Wild. However, Breath of the Wild will surely pass even this inflated figure very soon.
Further, if you count remasters, then it has a bit further to go. While The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time initially sold just 7.6 million units on the N64, it also sold 4 million units when it was remastered for the 3DS, bringing it to a total of 11.6 million units.
However, if you don’t count re-releases and remasters, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is officially the top dog of Zelda. And even if you do consider re-releases and remasters, it’s only a matter of time until its at the top.
What makes The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s achievement even more crazy is the fact that is has barley been on the market for a year, and that it launched alongside the Nintendo Switch. The Switch is on a record-setting pace in terms of sales, so who knows what kind of number The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild could rack up come the end of the console’s lifespan. Surely it will be a number that will set a new bar for future Zelda games to top.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is available for Nintendo Switch and Wii U.
