Ocarina of Time remake opens to stronger UK physical sales than Breath of the Wild

First reported 08 Nov, 22:24 UTCSource: NotebookcheckLast editorial activity 08 Nov, 22:24 UTCWrite a comment ↓

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Preliminary UK retail figures reported by The Gaming Business indicate that the Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake has opened more strongly than Breath of the Wild and now sits at the top of 2026 physical sales. The numbers are early and cover only one major market.

Early figures put the remake ahead of 2017

Christopher Dring of The Gaming Business published initial UK sales for the Switch 2 remake a few days after it arrived. The preliminary figures show the title ahead of the opening of Breath of the Wild, with first-week sales reported at 35% above those of the 2017 original.

The same early data suggests British buyers were keen to return to the Nintendo 64 classic on the day it came out. On these numbers, the Switch 2 title currently outsells every other physical release of 2026.

Measured against Tears of the Kingdom

Set against Tears of the Kingdom, the remake's start is more modest, running at roughly half the pace of the 2023 sequel. Dring points to a substantially different console install base as a major factor. An estimated 13.56 million players owned a Wii U when Breath of the Wild appeared, whereas Tears of the Kingdom benefited from more than 125 million Switch consoles sold by May 2023.

Because the Switch 2 game targets a smaller pool of console owners, the comparison with its predecessors does not hold on a like-for-like basis.

Rivals and the limits of the data

Resident Evil Requiem and Call of Duty are the leading rivals among 2026 disc and cartridge releases in the UK. According to the reported data, the Nintendo console exclusive is launching more healthily than any multi-platform competitor.

The UK is only one major market, so the figures say nothing conclusive about global performance. That the release is a remake rather than a new Zelda project has not held it back so far.

Open questions

Will the UK trend hold in other major markets once full sales data is published?
How will the difference in install bases affect the remake's final sales total?

Key facts

Christopher Dring of The Gaming Business reported initial UK sales days after the remake's release date.

Early launch figures place the Ocarina of Time remake ahead of Breath of the Wild.

First-week sales are reported at 35% above those of Breath of the Wild in 2017.

The remake is pacing at about half the rate of Tears of the Kingdom in 2023.

The Switch 2 game is outselling every other physical title released so far in 2026.