The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake has recorded the second-biggest Zelda launch in UK history, and the biggest physical game launch of 2026 in the UK so far, according to first-week sales figures.

The Switch 2 remake, released on Thursday 5 November, sold 35% more physical copies in its first week than Breath of the Wild managed on its debut in 2017. Only Tears of the Kingdom, released in 2023, has had a bigger first week for the series, with the remake tracking at roughly half of that game's opening physical sales.

Biggest boxed launch of the year

The figures come from Nielsen IQ, the firm behind the UK sales charts, and were reported by Christopher Dring of The Game Business. Dring described the remake as the biggest physical game launch of 2026 in the UK to date, ahead of major releases including Resident Evil Requiem, Call of Duty and EA Sports FC.

The remake is also the fastest-selling "old school" Zelda adventure Dring has covered, a notable result for a remake of a game first released on the Nintendo 64 in 1998. The numbers cover physical copies only. Digital downloads are not included, so the game's total first-week sales are likely to be higher than the boxed figures suggest.

A strong start for Switch 2

The launch gives Nintendo's Switch 2 another hit in its first year. Nintendo said in its November results that the console had sold just over 26 million units as of 30 September 2026, and the company has said the Zelda remake is off to a very strong start, though it has not yet published its own unit figures for the game.

Demand was visible before launch. The physical Switch 2 game passed 100,000 pre-orders in 30 days on Amazon in the United States, and a midnight launch event in London saw collectors queuing for a limited run of copies. The remake was announced during Nintendo's September 2026 Direct presentation.

What comes next

The UK figures are the first weekly sales data for the remake. The next set of numbers will come from Japan, where Famitsu publishes its weekly physical sales report on Wednesday 11 November, giving the game's first Japanese week the same treatment.

For now, the UK chart tells a clear story: a 28-year-old adventure, rebuilt for new hardware, has outsold every other boxed game released in Britain this year. Sources: Notebookcheck and Twisted Voxel, reporting Nielsen IQ data via The Game Business.