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the_dengle on 30 September 2013
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osed125 said:
pezus said:
osed125 said:

Zelda has always been more popular in the west than in Japan. As far as I know not a single game in the franchise have sold more in Japan than in NA (not even close I think). So people trying to use this in a negative way don't really have any grounds to do so. Add to all that that is a HD remake and Wii U's install base and this sales (whatever they are) are perfectly normal. 

NA is also a much larger market than Japan so that is an unfair comparison. It's probably more true to say that Zelda is about as (relatively) big in Japan as NA. Usually there is a large difference in install bases as well, but this time WiiU has sold almost the same amount in japan as in USA, so the difference won't be as big as before.

Let's look at 3 of the best selling Zelda games. Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess and the original NES one.

First OoT:

  • N64 install base in NA: 20.11m
  • OoT copies sold in NA: 4.10m
  • Attach rate of ~ 0.20
  • N64 install base in Japan: 5.54m 
  • OoT copies sold in Japan: 1.45m
  • Attach rate of ~0.26

Second Twilight Princess:

  • Wii install base in NA: 44.85m
  • TP copies sold in NA: 3.60m
  • Attach rate of ~ 0.080
  • Wii install base in Japan: 12.74m 
  • TP copies sold in Japan: 0.60m
  • Attach rate of ~ 0.047

Third Legend of Zelda NES:

  • NES install base in NA: 33.49m
  • LoZ copies sold in NA: 3.74m
  • Attach rate of ~ 0.11
  • NES install base in Japan: 19.35m 
  • LoZ copies sold in Japan: 1.69m
  • Attach rate of ~ 0.08

As you can see only Ocarina of Time had a bigger attach ratio in Japan than NA, the other games have a smaller one in Japan. The rest are probably the same, maybe the handheld ones have a bigger attach ratio in Japan considering the handhelds popularity.

Now do Wind Waker.