Some songs never lose their power. Nintendo has confirmed that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has sold more than 5.2 million copies worldwide in the first four days of its Nintendo Switch 2 remake’s release. For a game first released on Nintendo 64 in 1998, that is a remarkable second act.
Nintendo’s figures cover the first four days following the 5 November launch and include physical and digital sales. Of the global total, 810,000 copies were sold in Japan. According to the publisher, it is the strongest opening four days for any Nintendo-published Nintendo Switch 2 game to date.
Old Hyrule, enormous appetite
The original Ocarina of Time is still part of gaming’s shared vocabulary: lock-on combat, an expansive 3D world, memorable dungeons and that tiny musical instrument with an unreasonably large influence on people’s childhoods. Bringing it back was always going to attract attention. Selling millions in less than a week is another matter entirely.
This new release is a full remake rather than a straightforward resolution upgrade. Nintendo has reworked visuals and controls, brought orchestral music to the adventure and expanded its presentation. The challenge is to modernise a game remembered so vividly without sanding away everything that gave it character.
What the record actually means
There is a useful distinction here. Nintendo is comparing the first four days of Nintendo-published Switch 2 releases, not claiming an all-time record across every platform, publisher or Zelda game. That narrower description does nothing to diminish the achievement; it simply tells us what has actually been measured.
There is a wider story underneath the numbers. Nintendo’s 40th-anniversary celebration is introducing younger players to one of its defining adventures, while giving long-time fans another reason to return to Kokiri Forest. Some of us could probably still find our way to the Lost Woods blindfolded. Whether we should is a different question.
Read our full Ocarina of Time special
We have already taken a deeper look at Ocarina of Time on Switch 2, the remake’s confirmed changes and the legacy of the 1998 original. That feature examines Nintendo’s developer insights, the design decisions behind this return and why its influence still reaches modern games. It is an editorial retrospective, not a hands-on review.
Source: Nintendo’s official 11 November 2026 sales announcement. Sales figures supplied by Nintendo. Artwork © Nintendo.