The Legend Of Zelda Series Was Struggling Before Breath Of The Wild

Zelda Was In “Dire Straits” Before Breath Of The Wild, Former Employees Claim Published Nov 13, 2026, 6:03 AM EST James Lucas is the Lead Photo Editor at TheGamer and has worked in professional journalism since 2018. A Newcastle University graduate with a degree in Journalism, Media, and Culture, they have written hundreds of guides, news stories, and original reports, with bylines in IGN, NME, GaymingMag, and VG247, sourcing interviews with studio heads, legendary industry figures, prominent actors, and more. You can reach them at James.t@thegamer.com Sign in to your TheGamer account It's easy to forget that Zelda fans were fed up with the formula not too long ago; Twilight Princess was often criticized for being too derivative of Ocarina of Time, and Skyward Sword—while a critical darling—was frequently called out for its excessive hand-holding. These games are looked back on fondly now, but the series was in need of an update at the time. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom might already be facing similar complaints, with vocal fans online calling on Nintendo to drop the open world altogether in favor of a more classic Zelda experience, but throwing Link into the expanse of Hyrule is what saved the series. To hear former Nintendo employee Krysta Yang say it, "They were selling like nothing." "I remember I was going to the focus groups. It was a really dark moment of like, the feedback is the fan base is dwindling," co-host and fellow former Nintendo employee Kit Ellis added. "This is not bringing in new players. We had so much data of every game, it was fewer, the interest in the audience was getting smaller and smaller. They had to do something drastic." Kit & Krysta Accuse Fans Of "Revisionist History" Kit claims the idea that the Zelda team tore down the foundations at the "peak of their popularity" to make room for a more experimental, open-world game is "revisionist history"—fans were not interested in the series anymore. You only need to look at the chasm between their sales. Breath of the Wild wound up selling over 36 million copies across Wii U and Switch, whereas Skyward Sword sold a mere 3.5 million copies on the original Wii. Tears of the Kingdom, meanwhile, sold almost 23 million copies. The open world games put Zelda back in the spotlight. Of course, the lesson to take from their success isn't that open-world Zelda is better, and that Nintendo should continue pumping out Breath of the Wild games. That stagnation is exactly what led to the series' downfall in the first place. The lesson should be that experimenting with the formula and taking big swings pays off, and the team shouldn't pigeonhole themselves into one style or else they risk fans getting exhausted again. Systems Released March 3, 2017 ESRB E for Everyone: Fantasy Violence, Use of Alcohol, Mild Suggestive Themes Developer(s) Nintendo EPD Publisher(s) Nintendo Engine Havok Cross-Platform Play no Cross Save no Genre(s) Action, Adventure