Something interesting I've been keeping my eye on are the steady sales of Zelda: Twilight Princess. At first I didn't think much about it but then I looked at Ocarina of Time and I think it will be able to do the unspeakable for OoT fanboys and become the best selling Zelda title to date.

Lifetime sales as of December 21st, 2008:

Ocarina of Time: 7.60m

Twilight Princess: 4.99m (Wii) + 1.56m (GC) = 6.55m

And just for reference...

Legend of Zelda (NES): 6.51m

The original LoZ is currently the second best selling game in the series, a title Twilight Princess will usurp in a matter of weeks. The only thing standing in its way would be Ocarina of Time. TP Wii sells about 20-30k weekly and has been doing that for months (outside of spikes which could go as high as 40k). It would have to push a little over another million within the span of the rest of this generation in order to overtake OoT. I think it can, and will.

Gamecube Twilight Princess is pretty much done as is the Wii version in Japan. It's really up to America and Others to push it over. It's actually interesting how close both TPs America and Others sales are to OoT in those regions.

Dec 12th 08 Update: I updated the numbers...there has been no movement/adjustments to TP GC, but TP Wii is 10k shy of 5m, putting the total of both versions at 6.55m. More detailed info in my latest reply.

Well, it's a good thing if the series grows rather than shrink.

I hope not because TP does not deserve it.

Why would you add TP up,on two systems? If it was only the wii or GC,then no.

Why not? Both versions of Twilight Princess were released at nearly the exact same time worldwide. The only difference between them are the controls and the fact that TP Wii's world was mirrored to reflect Link's new righthandedness.

If Nintendo had skipped out on the GC version then it would have impacted the Wii version's sales and they'd be higher than they are now and vice versa if there had been no Wii version. 

If any single version of TP outsold OoT that would actually be even more telling.

The Legend of Zelda will always be the best Zelda. Anywho, don't forget about WiiWare sales of The Legend of Zelda and Ocarina of Time :) The Legend of Zelda has likely sold several hundred thousand and continues to sell well. Ocarina of Time is also doing quite well.

i think it'd encourage nintendo to make a more definitive zelda if it does
end up usurping OoT. As much as i love that N64 classic, TP, to me at least,
nails it as a game on its own. It will keep nintendo churning out god-like
games :)

I Also noticed Phantom Hourglass is the best selling handheld Zelda game of all time.

and I think its great that the sales for Zelda are increasing this gen

Going to be hard to catch up for the 800K it is going to be behind in Japan.

We have to look at the GC one as dead, it won't give any more sales.

The Wii one does in America sell almost as much weekly as it did from week 20-30. It is averaging 10-15K/week, and tracks around 40-60th place on the chart. It could see 500K more just this year, leaving it 170K ahead of OoT.

In others it is also tracking in 10K/week, but it is seeing a slow decline. Here too it tracks around 50-70th place. It could sell 300K more here, leaving it 200K ahead of OoT.

In Japan it is close to dead, selling less than 1K copies/week. Should be able to take in 30K more LT leaving it 800K behind OoT.

So after this year, it should be around 330K behind OoT, something it could be able to make in '09, but if it doesn't make it then, there's little chance it will, as the new Zelda will take away much of the zip.

So I say it could make it, but that it is far from certain. I hope it makes it :)

And don't forget PH, as someone else mentioned, it is tracking above TP (Wii) now and has some awesome legs. (http://vgchartz.com/swlaunch.php?reg1=All&game1=The+Legend+of+Zelda%3A+Phantom+Hourglass+-+DS&reg2=All&game2=The+Legend+of+Zelda%3A+Twilight+Princess+-+Wii&reg3=All&game3=&weeks=80)

It should be able to outsell TP (Wii) and The legend of Zelda (original), but OoT and TP combined might be a bit hard.