This is a sales discussion analyzing sales trends. There's plenty of other topics to argue about which one is the better game; if you want to do that, go to one of those. Not this one. This one is about sales.

I want to preface this by saying that it has been suggested in the past that VGChartz may consistently overtrack Twilight Princess numbers, week in and week out. I, myself, cannot comment on that sort of thing. I work with the numbers that I'm given; if Brett comes in here and corrects me, then I'll change the basis of this argument. Until that point, this discussion uses VGChartz numbers as its base.

To begin:

CHAMPION

The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time

Sales: 7.60 million (4.08 Americas, 1.46 Japan, 2.06 EMEAA)

The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time is the best-selling game in its series and has been so since its release over ten years ago. The game is considered a modern classic, the single bar against which other Zelda games must be compared in terms of both success and quality. Nintendo has known this for a long, long time, and has been striving to improve on its formula ever since. Whether or not they've succeeded is up to debate, but one thign is definitely true: up to now, no Zelda game has managed to sell better.

CHALLENGER

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Sales: 7.25 million (4.26 Americas, 0.64 Japan, 2.35 EMEAA)

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is the second highest-selling game in its franchise, the first entry that was multiplatform at release, and unlike its predecessor it continues to sell to this day, almost four years after its initial release. In the past charted week it sold just under 6,000 units, and it has been charting at that level or just under it for the past two years. It has managed to sell 130,000 units since June, and does not seem likely to stop selling in the immediate future.

The question, and the reason for this topic, is this: Could Twilight Princess eventually outsell the original release of Ocarina of Time? It would need to sustain its current sales pace for another 60 weeks, assuming no significant boosts or drop-offs, which may or may not be possible in the wake of Skyward Sword finally seeing its release. However, it must be considered that there are still circumstances that could boost its total sales: release in new territories (like Russia, eventually), being part of a Player's Choice lineup (like Ocarina itself was later in life), on and on. But will any of that happen?

Let us discuss this.

Oh.

Right.

And the first of you to say "Maybe, but it should sell a LOT more on the Wii's userbase" is getting figuratively kicked in the mouth with my figurative boot.

Oh I wish Wind Waker was the one to outsell OOT....it truly deserved it.

Anyway It depends on this holiday....how high can it really rise and on Skyward Sword's release date...because that will cut TP's weekly sales (but may lead to an initial slight rise as the Zelda hype gets into the air)

:O You're a Windwaker fan :') I really hoped so too!! But it wasnt to be alas!

I guess it can outsell Ocarina eventually, and as we're heading to the holidays i guess we'll see that more! But i probably would go by equal sales. I cant see TP selling after SW releases

Just for you, darth, I looked up the numbers that Twilight Princess pulled last year from the week ending October 10 through the end of the year, which was the first week ending in January.

Total sales numbers: 106,824

If Twilight Princess pulled the same numbers this year, it would be within a quarter of a million of outselling Ocarina of Time, which would put it on schedule to beat it sometime in 2011, unless Skyward Sword cuts its legs out altogether.

But, and this is important to note: Twilight Princess is actually selling much better this year than it did last year.

Last year, on the week ending October 3rd, Twilight Princess sold 2473 copies.

This last week, ending October 2nd, it sold 5954 (I think). In 2009 it didn't reach these numbers until midway through November, just before the big THanksgiving week blowout.

We won't have a good indicator of how well it will do unti lthe holiday season is over and adjustments have been made, but right now it looks like it could sell considerably more than last year. I'm not sure why: it's possible that the Skyward Sword reveal has people excited for Zelda.

depends when skyward sword comes out.

So you don't see Nintendo putting out a Player's Choice lineup for its software, or any release into significant new territories?

Thats interesting.

Why would it be selling better this year when Wii hardware is lower.

Anyway We need to also see that there may have been people who got it for the gamecube and Wii, so there might be a overlap there.

yes, because i have no idea what you just said.

That's true, but i don't imagine that the overlap is statistically significant - and even if it were, a sale is still a sale.

I think Wii can,...

old joke

seriously, with SS release after holiday 2010 and Players Choice, it will outsell OOT easily, imho. And even with SS release in 2010 it could reach OOT numbers with Players Choice alone.

And i think Ninty WILL, or MUST do PC before holiday 2010.