The Zelda Series Has Lost Its Impact in the Industry
Posted on July 05 2014 by Nathanial Rumphol-Janc
Yesterday we had some interesting revelations when examining the overall sales figures for the series over the years. It isn’t so much about what game sold what, but rather the fact that comparatively, the Zelda series has less of an impact sales wise the bigger the gaming population grows. Now, due to differing gaming tastes this is bound to happen – but as the gamer population grows you would figure that the Zelda game sales would also improve, even if it loses ground for influence. That hasn’t been the case.
In fact, depending on how you choose to read the sales figures, you could argue the Zelda fanbase is shrinking. Combine this with some data from our recent survey, and you can see that today’s Zelda games aren’t drawing in new gamers like some of the old ones did. At this point it is practically undeniable: the Zelda series hasn’t shown a steady growth path and the fan base is becoming smaller and more compact. The question is…why?
There is no firm answer to this, and asking each other probably isn’t going to get us very far – we are all still part of the Zelda fandom. We aren’t the ones who “grew out of the series,” or no longer play it. We aren’t new prospective fans who could be enticed by the next entry. We are Zelda fans – so figuring out why the series is losing popularity and isn’t introducing new gamers is almost an impossible question to answer for us.
Still, that is the fundamental question to put out there. I have spoken in the past how a unified art style direction could increase sales, or going the direction of Twilight Princess even more seems to produce better results – but even if we look back on the sales of Twilight Princess, as good as they were, it didn’t actually grow the fandom much if at all.
As I said before, I am the wrong person to ask, as are you. We are all going to make guesses as to why others don’t want to play Zelda games. Still, that is the question I am going to pose anyways. It is undeniable the series is losing its impact in the industry, but why?
