I have shamed myself...I must now banish myself to moron mountain...

So... you are beeing extremely generous with Horizon here. There is much we still don't know and it comes from a developer that doesnt have an excellence pedigree.
But the main reason i say this is because Horizon looks like nothing more than a graphical showcase atm. All the footage we have seen so far have been battle with one giant mecha-dinossaur. This shows us simply the combat. We don't see how the world is structured, how the game flows nor how interesting the story and tasks are. From what i saw, i see a Monster Hunter repetition syndrome (having to grind mats from the same mobs equals repetition and boredom).

So yeah... i don't share any optimism about the game.

Metacritic: 

This doesn't matter. Wichever one the journalists decide to woo. The review are too biased or bought to even bother taking this into account.

Sales: 
I don't think its a no-brainer. Horizon is a new IP. If it doesnt have stellar reviews it will be a major flop and even if it does, i'm not sure how much appeal it will have in the west. Again, the developer doesnt have the name a Bioware or Bethesda has. It will be a tough sell.
Zelda U will likely sell above 2m.

So... i would say in likelyhood Zelda, but it will depend on how good and how hyped (and release window). It will be close i think.

Graphics: 

Tough call. If we go by tech, obviously horizon. But i think design is more important. I would need to see more of Zelda in action, but i think its safe to say Horizon will be a strong contender on this department.


End of the day, i will be very surprised if Horizon holds a candle to Zelda.

Just added PS4 and PS4 Neo against Wii U and NX for fun.

Annoying how i can't like two games without people always having to choose which one is better.

"OMG ZELDA HAS TRASH GRAPHICS!"
"HORIZON'S DAWN ON SHITSTATION LOL"

How childish are people? No one cares what you think about either game. They're both(I assume) high quality titles which will have fans and haters. Just play the damn game and stop caring about graphics or comparing it to everything. I thought seeing the SSB4/Street fighter V wars were bad...the Breath of the Wild and Horizon Dawn's wars are simply ridiculous.

Edit: better hope Horizon's Dawn doesn't go Watchdogs on Sony fans. Nintendo always releases what they promise(or a slightly polished version). Won't be pessimistic, but the creator's of Horizon really need to prove that we can trust them for high quality games. i won't care if the game has slightly worse graphics, but it'll suck if it's a drastic difference to the point where it's nothing like they originally promised.

Horizon just seem too focused on combat for my liking. I like the more adventure aspect of Zelda.

There are lots of similarities between these two. And lots of differences. But this thread was created solely for comparison for two big titles of two rival competitors.

Legend of Zelda seems based more on exploring, while Horizon Zero Dawn is focusing on combat.

Maybe it's just me, but that's what I realized. Not just that, but I'm also glad Nintendo chose to not use realistic graphics for BotW. The new art style on the engine blew me away. Refreshing to see new styles as well. 

Video gaming forum veterans might find this art style refreshing (looks good to me also) but doubt how general gamers will react to it. You are stating exploration because there are lots of empty barren land in Zelda. On the contrary horizon shows big map which is packed with lots of things of interest. Their focus in the video was combat however while mounting it was shown there are lots of exploration. In the end this depends on point of view.

A lot of Zelda wasn't shown to prevent spoilers. We still haven't seen major cities or temples yet.