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Daily top 3

Best Zelda games

Updated: 31.08.2026

This ranking comes from the answers players enter in the NintenDoku puzzle. The more often a game is chosen as a correct answer, the higher it ranks.

26 games in this category, 26 of them with entries.

1The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild+78 % vs. rank 2

The mix of Action and Adventure arrived on March 3, 2017 worldwide at the same time as a launch title for Nintendo Switch. There is no multiplayer mode, the title is a pure single player affair. About 35.76 million copies were sold worldwide, making it one of the big commercial hits. The game world is shown from a third-person perspective. The title supports amiibo and offers optional in-game purchases. According to HowLongToBeat, the single-player main story takes around 50.3 hours on average, which makes it a long, meaty game. At The Game Awards 2017 it won several awards: Game of the Year, Best Game Direction and Best Action/Adventure. Nintendo served as the primary developer. Critics awarded a Metascore of 97, the community a user score of 8.9. Critically that counts as excellent, among players as good; the scores stay close, though. In NintenDoku it is the most popular answer among the Zelda games and sits 78 percent ahead of #2.

2The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time+6 % vs. rank 3

The mix of Action and Adventure arrived on November 21, 1998 first in Japan for Nintendo 64. Its primary developer is Nintendo. The title later received a re-release on a different platform, has no online features at all and is or was available through Nintendo Switch Online. Approximately 7.60 million copies were sold worldwide, a commercially very successful title. According to HowLongToBeat, the single-player main story takes around 26.8 hours on average, which makes it a medium-length game. The game world is shown from a third-person perspective. There is no multiplayer mode, the title is a pure single player affair. On Metacritic it holds a Metascore of 99, with a user score of 9.1. Both rate it excellent, with critics a bit higher. Among NintenDoku players it takes second place among the Zelda games and sits 6 percent ahead of #3.

3The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom+82 % vs. rank 4

The mix of Action and Adventure arrived on May 12, 2023 worldwide at the same time for Nintendo Switch. At The Game Awards 2023 it won several awards: Best Game Direction and Best Action/Adventure. It also earned nominations in 3 more categories. According to HowLongToBeat, the single-player main story takes around 59.1 hours on average, which makes it a long, meaty game. Nintendo served as the primary developer. The game world is shown from a third-person perspective. About 22.71 million copies were sold worldwide, making it one of the big commercial hits. It is played solo only, there is no multiplayer mode. The title has no online features at all and supports amiibo. Critics awarded a Metascore of 96, the community a user score of 8.8. Critically that counts as excellent, among players as good; the scores stay close, though. It rounds out the top 3 and sits 82 percent ahead of #4.

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Zelda, a series with one clear break

The Legend of Zelda is harder to rank than most series because it contains a very visible break. For decades the games followed a recognisable structure: an overworld, a run of dungeons in a largely fixed order, and in each of them an item that opens the way to the next. The formula was refined, varied and occasionally turned on its head, but it stayed the frame.

Breath of the Wild abandoned that frame. Instead of an order there was an open landscape, and instead of key items a handful of abilities available from the start. The series reached a new and considerably larger audience that way, and that is precisely what makes ranking it awkward. A substantial share of players knows Zelda only in this newer form, while for others the series is at heart something else entirely.

There is a second quirk. For decades Zelda appeared on home consoles and handhelds in parallel, with two-dimensional and three-dimensional entries running alongside each other rather than in sequence. The much debated chronology of the story plays no part in this ranking, which sorts by release date. If you expect the series ordered by in-fiction timeline, you will deliberately find a different order here.

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Where the Data Comes From

In the Nintendo puzzle NintenDoku, players enter game titles matching given categories every day. Every correct answer is counted. Only the top 3 and the percentage gaps are shown on purpose, no absolute numbers. This keeps the puzzle fair.