Breath of the Wild
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild launched worldwide on 3 March 2017 on Wii U and Nintendo Switch the same day. Nintendo EPD developed it. It is the game that dropped the old dungeon checklist for a climbing, cooking, open Hyrule.
Last checked:
Two sales lines, two dates
Nintendo’s investor table puts the Switch version at 34.28 million units as of 30 September 2026. The Wii U version’s published line is 1.70 million as of December 2020. I will not add those into 35.98 million. The dates are different, so the sum would be a number nobody reported.
Metacritic’s figure here is 97. That is a score, not a sales rank. Tears of the Kingdom later passed it on the shelf and did not pass it on that scoreboard (96). The ranked page keeps those columns apart.
The Switch 2 edition is another product
On 5 June 2025 Nintendo shipped a Switch 2 Edition: higher resolution, higher frame rate, HDR, faster loading, and Zelda Notes. A physical Switch 2 card includes the upgrade. A digital Switch owner can buy a pack. Nintendo Switch Online plus Expansion Pack can claim the pack without a separate fee. None of that rewrites the 2017 game into the new edition. The original Switch card is still the original Switch card.
The story sits after the three timeline branches, and Nintendo’s chart does not pick a branch. I leave that argument on the timeline page. What I will say here is narrower: the Sheikah Slate, the towers, and the freedom to ignore a divine beast are the 2017 design, and the expansion pass (the champions’ ballad and the master trials) is DLC for this game, not a sequel. The sequel is Tears of the Kingdom, 12 May 2023.
There is no PC edition on Nintendo’s store page. The PC page on this site is the short version of that answer.
FAQ
Should I play this before Tears of the Kingdom?
Tears of the Kingdom is a sequel on the same Hyrule. You can start there, and you will miss references. I still send first-timers here.
Is the Wii U version the same game?
It launched the same day. The sales lines are tracked separately. The Wii U shop is closed, so the Switch version is the one you can still buy new.
Related
Sources
| Claim | Status | Cross-check |
|---|---|---|
| Historical dates, platforms and background | 1 source: Wikipedia | Read the linked game or series entry; multiple Wikipedia pages count as one publisher. |
| Mainline release sequence and original consoles | 2 sources | Nintendo game history compared with Wikipedia. Remakes and spin-offs use the linked individual entries. |
| Breath of the Wild 34.28m / Tears of the Kingdom 22.90m | 1 primary source: Nintendo IR | Read the dated Nintendo Switch investor table. Other reports copying that table are not independent measurements. |
- Nintendo IR, Switch software sales as of 30 September 2026 — checked 2026-11-10
- Nintendo, official Zelda game history — checked 2026-11-10
- Nintendo IR software sales — checked 2026-11-10
- Wikipedia, Breath of the Wild — checked 2026-11-10
- Nintendo Support, Zelda Notes — checked 2026-11-10
Page updated 2026-11-10. Site check date 2026-11-10.