Breath of the Wild Saved the Zelda Series From ‘Dire Straits’

Published Nov 13, 2026, 11:22 AM EST Elijah is a freelance news writer at Polygon. He was an associate editor at The A.V. Club and Paste, and has been featured in outlets like Game Informer, Fanbyte, Unwinnable, and more. He loves media in all forms, from fighting games and horror flicks to slow cinema and visual novels. He's from the Greater Boston area. The open world take seems to have revitalized the series Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo Sign in to your Polygon.com account The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s remake is a huge success. Beyond receiving effusive praise from critics, who say this revamp strengthens what made the original one of the best games ever made, it has already sold more than 5.2 million copies, which Nintendo says gives it the "highest global sales for any Nintendo-published Nintendo Switch 2 game in its first four days." It's also the system's highest-selling title after Mario Kart World, which has moved over 16 million copies. The game’s massive popularity has sparked debates about whether Nintendo should pivot away from the open-world formula introduced in Breath of the Wild in favor of the series’ classic dungeon-focused design. Former Nintendo of America director of social media marketing and original content Kit Ellis and senior manager of creator relations and original content Krysta Yang offered some fascinating context on the most recent episode of their podcast. A future for classic Zelda? While Ellis says he would be interested in a “modern attempt on a classic Zelda game,” he sheds some light on the state of the series before the release of Breath of the Wild. He rejects the “revisionist history” that “the Zelda team ripped these [traditional Zelda games] away from us at the peak of their popularity.” Yang adds, “This series was in dire straits. They were selling nothing.” Breath of the Wild is the most successful Legend of Zelda game ever, with 34.51 million units sold. The last classic-styled Zelda game was 2011's Skyward Sword, which sold 4.15 million. That was a big drop from the 8.93 million sold for its predecessor, Twilight Princess. “I remember I was going to the focus groups,” Ellis said. “It was a really dark moment. The feedback is ‘the fan base is dwindling; this is not bringing in new players.’” He claims that Nintendo had “so much data” that “the interest in the audience was getting smaller and smaller” and the company “had to do something dramatic” in response. While The Legend of Zelda clearly needed a revamp after Skyward Sword, Ocarina of Time’s success shows there are still many fans looking for more traditional, dungeon-focused games. Perhaps the remake's impressive buzz will lead to a new classic-style Zelda game, or at least bring more elements of this approach into the next major title.