The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a 2017 action-adventure game developed by Nintendo EPD for the Wii U and Nintendo Switch. Set near the end of the Zelda timeline, it follows Link as he sets out to save Princess Zelda and prevent Calamity Ganon from destroying the world. The player explores the open world of Hyrule, collects items, and completes objectives such as puzzles and side quests. Breath of the Wild's world is unstructured and encourages exploration and experimentation; the story can be completed in a nonlinear fashion.

The five-year development commenced after the release of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011). Led by the director Hidemaro Fujibayashi and the producer Eiji Aonuma, EPD sought to rethink Zelda's conventions and introduced elements such as detailed chemistry and physics engines. EPD drew inspiration from Shadow of the Colossus (2005) and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011). Monolith Soft, which developed the open-world Xenoblade Chronicles series, assisted in designing landscapes and topography.

Breath of the Wild was released on March 3, 2017, as the final Nintendo-published Wii U game and a Switch launch game. It received acclaim, with praise for its gameplay, open-world design, and attention to detail, though some reviewers criticized its technical performance. Breath of the Wild won numerous year-end accolades, including Game of the Year at the 2017 Game Awards and the 21st Annual D.I.C.E. Awards. It broke sales records for a Nintendo launch game and sold 34.51 million copies by March 2025, making it the bestselling Zelda game and one of the bestselling video games.

Breath of the Wild is considered one of the greatest video games; journalists described it as a landmark in open-world design for its emphasis on experimentation, physics-based sandbox, and emergent gameplay. Numerous developers cited Breath of the Wild as inspiration, and it is a popular point of comparison among open-world games. A spinoff, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, was released in 2020, and a sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, was released in 2023. An enhanced port for the Nintendo Switch 2 was released in June 2025.