The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD sells 3.6 million units since launch

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD has done quite well in sales in the few months since its launch.

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In the Zelda pantheon, there are perhaps few games as divisive as The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Even still, it’s a Zelda game and its HD release this last year took aim at ridding it of many of the issues that soured players on it when it first launched on the Wii. These improvements and its introduction to a newer audience seem to have paid off, too. According to Nintendo’s most recent quarterly reporting, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD has already sold 3.6 million copies since its launch in July 2021.

Nintendo reported this rather impressive number in the details of its Q2 2022 financial reporting, released on November 4, 2021. While there were other notable points of the reporting that included the reduction of Switch console production forecasts and the raise of profit guidance for the rest of Nintendo’s fiscal year, the details on game sales had some interesting tidbits as well. Notably, since its launch in July, Skyward Sword HD has put up unit sales of over 3.6 million, making it a hefty seller for Nintendo throughout the previous quarter.

By comparison, the previous title before Skyward Sword HD, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening remake came out in September 2019 and had sold 5.49 million units as of March 31, 2021, according to Nintendo’s 2021 fiscal year-end report. It’s arguable which game is better in quality, but Skyward Sword HD had quite some improvements to warrant another look, notably including reworking combat to ditch motion controls if players desired and also the option to limit the intrusive Fi’s constant guidance. Ridding the game of pain points like these alongside introducing it to a new audience has seemingly paid off for Nintendo.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD may be padding for the much-anticipated Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel, but even if it is buffer, it’s turned out to be another decent win for Nintendo this previous quarter.

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.

From The Chatty
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    November 4, 2021 8:45 AM

    TJ Denzer posted a new article, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD sells 3.6 million units since launch

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      November 4, 2021 11:45 AM

      I’m a little blown away by how much these remakes make. That’s gotta be nearly pure profit for N right? I can’t imagine much dev time went into them.

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        November 4, 2021 11:52 AM

        It's more than it appears to modernize something like Skyward Sword.

        Obviously not on the same level as developing an entire game, but they made a lot of changes and refinements. Plus the A/V modernization.

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          November 4, 2021 11:59 AM

          Say the made around $200M In revenue—I’d really like to know how much it cost them. No way they paid $100M. 10 devs at $200k/yr comp is only $2M. How much work is a mystery, I’d be shocked if it’s $20M. In which case, jayzus, 10x returns for an old game.

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          November 4, 2021 12:14 PM

          They fixed it to such an extent that about 10 hours are shaved off average playtimes.

          https://howlongtobeat.com/game?id=10042

          https://howlongtobeat.com/game?id=88748

          Its actually a really fun game now. I’d easily put it ahead of Twilight Princess and in some ways (the dungeons) its better than Wind Waker

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      November 4, 2021 11:53 AM

      So many disappointed faces

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      November 4, 2021 12:10 PM

      I straight up hated OG Skyward Sword. HD version is very good! The extent to which they smoothed it out is very impressive, way more fine tuning and work than a standard HD remaster

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      November 4, 2021 1:01 PM

      Deer Lord

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