The mark of a truly great and popular game isn’t found in day one sales — in fact, it’s not really found in sales at all, but they do provide some metric by which we can estimate the impact and longevity of a video game. And The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is clearly evergreen, as within the two years since its release it hasn’t left the Japanese Top 20 sales chart even once.
Last week the open world masterpiece sold just under 8,000 units in Japan to make it to number 15 on the sales charts, crossing 1.3 million copies lifetime in Japan alone. Those numbers are impressive, but they’re not even the best the Switch has got in the region — the Pokémon Let’s Go games are at 1.5 million, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is at 2.1 million, and both Splatoon 2 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate are on the cusp of crossing the 3 million mark (especially impressive for Smash, as it’s only been out three months!). Still, going a complete two years without dropping off the charts only shows how successful Breath of the Wild has been.
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Written by Amelia Fruzzetti
A writer and Nintendo fan based in Seattle, Washington. When not working for NinWire, she can be found eating pasta, writing stories, and wondering about when Mother 3 is finally going to get an official localization.
