The Legend of Zelda - Series Sales

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 publisher to buy back unsold copies is a much more difficult prospect in Japan, so if a game isn't selling, the retailer usually puts a steep discount on its price instead, to help get rid of it. This is colloquially referred to as putting a game in the "bargain bin".

Main Series
Interesting trends to note:

• The eleven top-down Zelda games have sold a total of 38.3 million units worldwide. The five 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.

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.

• The Link's Awakening remake on the 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 The Legend of Zelda: 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.

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
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.