Well I think that the only surprise here is taht no game (on a single platform) has sold more than 10mil copies.

TP and SS on Wii are performing very similar to what OOT and MM did on N64.

it may be the Nintendo/Zelda Course - I love both OCT and TP as they are greta games but for some strange reason I prefere both MM and SS.

If Skyword Sword is a "flop" the Majoras Mask was a "flop" too :/. I don´t think that SS had a 100million$ Budget so its profitable and that qualifies as success.

Twilight sold well because it was one of the only games available for Wii at launch. Skyward Sword didn't sell as well, because people were reluctant to buy it after playing Twilight Princess.

Twilight Princess was perhaps the most disappointing game ever released by Nintendo; a few people liked it, but I think the vast majority were not as impressed with it as any of the past Zelda games when they were released. It had a lot of content, but unlike other Zelda games, it wasn't any fun to play.

But I think calling Skyward Sword a flop is incorrect, the sales are in the millions, and it appears to be average selling, not a flop.

Twilight Hack.

Only reason I got the game and I'm sure I'm not alone.

Since people started believing that had an idea what they're talking about. Like I remember a few months ago FFXIII-2 was a massive bomb and that it wasn't profitable. Look at there earnings statement for this quarter :P

It will sell better when they re-release it on WiiU.

Everyone thinks its about sales, and not profitability. 

for example everyone thinks NIS is doing bad because they sell so little, but they're actually doing better than THQ for example, they release games in limited budget and they have a small loyal fanbase, and they get profit without much marketing

THQ on the other hand just throws too much money on copyright shit, and end up losing money while having too much sales.

in the end, Sales =/= flop.

Nintendo here, whatever they sell , first thing they do is never overspend, they never take the dip of "selling game at a loss" , only exception was the 3DS , because of the backlash, another thing that their games never get cheaper, and had no paid copyright claims (you really don't want to hear Lady Gaga in a Zelda game don't you?) 

SS declined because Aonuma is going the wrong direction with the series.

TP has had 6 years to build up those sales. As mentioned, so far, LoZ:SS is selling faster than LoZ:TP. Really this questioned could be reversed. 'Why did TP sell so poorly compared to SS?'

In the end, TP will sell more because it A) Came out on launch (when great quality titles were scarce and Wii was HOT) and B) SS came out a year prior to Wii's replacement cutting it's sales short.

Everything else is secondary or irrelevant. LoZ:SS has sold very well compared to other Zeldas in the time frame it's been out.


Having said that, if LoZ:SS had come out at holiday season the same year WiiMotionPlus/WSR come out, it'd have likely outsold TP.

There's also a more obvious answer here. Nintendo's sequel's of their core franchises always sell about half as much as the first title. Even when the quality is unquestionably much better:

DKC sold 9.3 million, but the unquestionably superior DKC2 sold only 5.2 million
Mario Galaxy sold 10 million, but the unquestionably superior Mario Galaxy 2 sold only 6.7 million

This sort of trend goes on regardless.
Ocarina of Time sold 7.6 million, Majora's Mask sold 3.8 million.

This is just how things go.