Former Nintendo of America employees Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang told a recent podcast audience that The Legend of Zelda franchise was struggling in the years leading up to Breath of the Wild.
Developed by Nintendo EPD and released for Nintendo Switch and Wii U on March 3, 2017, Breath of the Wild marked a major design shift that the company saw as necessary to reverse declining engagement.
Ellis and Yang said internal data and focus-group research painted a clear picture: interest in the series had contracted and the franchise was not attracting significant numbers of new players.
Ellis described attending focus groups where he observed falling enthusiasm and shrinking audience interest.
Yang summarized the situation as the series being “in dire straits” and selling poorly prior to Breath of the Wild’s launch.
Ellis added that the team had comprehensive data showing that each successive release had drawn less attention, prompting Nintendo to pursue a dramatic redesign for the franchise.
Those observations align with historical sales figures for major Zelda releases.
Twilight Princess, released in 2006 for GameCube and Wii, remains one of the series’ strongest performers, selling nearly nine million copies.
By contrast, Skyward Sword, the Wii launch-era title released in 2011, sold under four million copies for its original Wii release.
Against that backdrop, Breath of the Wild produced an outsized commercial and critical comeback: since its 2017 launch it has sold almost 35 million copies across Switch and Wii U installs, establishing itself as one of Nintendo’s most successful modern releases.
The impact of Breath of the Wild helped reframe Zelda as an open-world, sandbox-driven series in the eyes of many players and critics.
The title’s success also reset expectations for future Zelda releases and influenced Nintendo’s positioning of the franchise on the Nintendo Switch platform and its digital storefront, the eShop.
Nintendo’s recent platform performance for classic Zelda properties has also attracted attention.
The company announced initial sales for Ocarina of Time on Switch 2 exceeded five million copies in the first four days after release.
By the end of 2026 that release could approach or surpass the sales of the original N64 edition, which stands at 7.60 million copies; the Nintendo 3DS remaster, Ocarina of Time 3D, sold 6.44 million units.
Taken together, the podcast comments from Ellis and Yang, alongside public sales milestones, illustrate how Breath of the Wild served as a pivotal moment for The Legend of Zelda—turning a period of diminishing returns into one of renewed franchise momentum on Nintendo’s modern hardware.
Developed by Nintendo EPD and released for Nintendo Switch and Wii U on March 3, 2017, Breath of the Wild marked a major design shift that the company saw as necessary to reverse declining engagement.
Ellis and Yang said internal data and focus-group research painted a clear picture: interest in the series had contracted and the franchise was not attracting significant numbers of new players.
Ellis described attending focus groups where he observed falling enthusiasm and shrinking audience interest.
Yang summarized the situation as the series being “in dire straits” and selling poorly prior to Breath of the Wild’s launch.
Ellis added that the team had comprehensive data showing that each successive release had drawn less attention, prompting Nintendo to pursue a dramatic redesign for the franchise.
Those observations align with historical sales figures for major Zelda releases.
Twilight Princess, released in 2006 for GameCube and Wii, remains one of the series’ strongest performers, selling nearly nine million copies.
By contrast, Skyward Sword, the Wii launch-era title released in 2011, sold under four million copies for its original Wii release.
Against that backdrop, Breath of the Wild produced an outsized commercial and critical comeback: since its 2017 launch it has sold almost 35 million copies across Switch and Wii U installs, establishing itself as one of Nintendo’s most successful modern releases.
The impact of Breath of the Wild helped reframe Zelda as an open-world, sandbox-driven series in the eyes of many players and critics.
The title’s success also reset expectations for future Zelda releases and influenced Nintendo’s positioning of the franchise on the Nintendo Switch platform and its digital storefront, the eShop.
Nintendo’s recent platform performance for classic Zelda properties has also attracted attention.
The company announced initial sales for Ocarina of Time on Switch 2 exceeded five million copies in the first four days after release.
By the end of 2026 that release could approach or surpass the sales of the original N64 edition, which stands at 7.60 million copies; the Nintendo 3DS remaster, Ocarina of Time 3D, sold 6.44 million units.
Taken together, the podcast comments from Ellis and Yang, alongside public sales milestones, illustrate how Breath of the Wild served as a pivotal moment for The Legend of Zelda—turning a period of diminishing returns into one of renewed franchise momentum on Nintendo’s modern hardware.
