While creating an objective list of the best video games of all time is more or less impossible, Nintendo’s long-lived action-adventure seriesThe Legend of Zeldacomes up commonly in these conversations. In fact, in 2021, gaming outlet IGN included multipleZeldagames in its all-time top ten, with the recentThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildclaiming the number one spot. Proven a massive success by just about every commonly-used industry metric, TheLegend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildcontinues to sell well in 2022, and it saw an all-new sales surge in the UK during the first week of April.As relayed by GamesIndustry.biz head Christopher Dring, Nintendo’s 2017Zeldafranchise installment saw a 51% jump in boxed retail in early April, suggesting that the title, which crossed the 25 million total sales mark in December 2021, still has a surprising amount of steam despiteNintendo’s aversion to lowering the prices of its first-party titles. Dring joked that the publisher “might as well just cancel the sequel” given the continued success of the half-decade-old game, though hype for the upcoming second Switch-centricZeldatitle could be part of the reason for the sudden sales surge.RELATED:Mario Kart 64 Speedrunner Beats Previous World Record By One SecondHardware sales could be a significant contributing factor in thisLegend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildretail bump;the Switch dominated console sales in 2021owing partly to the continued shortage of other ninth-gen consoles. Given the game’s notoriety, it seems like a must-buy for new Switch players despite the unwavering premium price point.
Oddly enough, another factor in the title’s continued success could be the recent debut of From Software’sElden Ring. While the two games, at a glance, seem to be very different, andElden RIngisn’t even available on the Switch, they are very often compared to one another owing to their unique open-world design philosophies.Elden RingandThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s Sequelweretwo of the most discussed forthcoming games of 2021, and it could be that the overwhelming success of one series inadvertently boosted the other.
Nintendo hasn’t exactly been forthcoming about the ETA of the next entry in its storiedThe Legend of Zeldaseries. In fact, fans have only been made privy to a selection of brief trailers which only served to mystify those excited about the title, and the publisher has even been so cagey as to keep the game’s full title a secret. Unfortunately, due to the recentcancellation of the E3 2022 conference, it’s hard to say when more information will be relayed to the public, and perhaps, in lieu of anything new, new Switch owners are settling for the 2017 game.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildis available now for the Nintendo Switch.
