I think this game will be a great Zelda installment, maybe even the greatest Zelda in years. I am only afraid that Zelda is not the big system seller anymore, since most fans have moved on into tablets for their handheld needs. Also the install base of the 3ds is rather small compared to the DS and other previous Nintendo handhelds. Therefore I doubt it will do more than 4 million, so lets say 3,70.

@tbone51 and other TP fans
I'm surprised to hear your most favorite Zelda game is TP, since this is the game that made me drop out of the series completely. I believe the console installments of Zelda have failed to renew and innovate the concept of Zelda since the Wind Waker. A game this depended on story telling and in world experience is stuck in the N64 era of game development thinking. Lets hope they will blow our minds on the WiiU, but I doubt so...

5.3 million

How many copies the 3ds version of Ocarina of Time sold ? around 3 million?

I expect the next Zelda to sell better than that. Maybe 4 million

LoZ OoT has 3.1mil sales but lets not forget its early in 3ds lifetime. It wont have the great legs like NSMB or MK But it should still go up nicely. it'll end around 3.5mil-3.7mil imo

I'd say 4 million. Probably will sell like crazy to start off, but it seems like for whatever reason, LotZ games don't have the legs of other games. I'm sure it will be a phenomenal game though, definitely a day one purchase for me.

Play Skyward Sword .

3.5 - 4 million

Which games are even left out from the top ten?

Spirit Tracks, Minish Cap, and the Oracle games?

I very much doubt A Link Between Worlds could manage to sell less than those.

I feel I'm playing it relatively safe with a 4.5 - 5.5 predictions.

It is a system seller in the way that people who loved classic Zelda with top down view and a focus on action and "in medias res" will want to revisit the franshise. I'm one of those people who do not believe that "puzzle" Zelda fans and "action" Zelda fans are the same people. I'd say the puzzle fans dived in with OOT 3D and classic Zelda fans will dive in with A Link Between Worlds. Thus it becomes a system seller. But not a huge system seller like a brand new Pokemon is.

It's funny. Peter Molyneux, a well known game designer whom have never supported a Nintendo system in all his life and never cared about Zelda games, consider Zelda:TP one of the best games ever created - an absolute masterpiece of game design. So there is something about that game that is maddeningly appealing to a certain segment. I would also note that Skyward Sword is probably one of the freshest, most innovated games coming out these last 10 years. 

4.25mil? I just don't know with this game! Will people flock to it because of it's "Retro" style, or be turned off by it?