What's the LEAST Popular Zelda game?

Every Zelda game is different - Breath of the Wild, Ocarina of Time, Skyward Sword - but which one is the best? To find out, I created a survey where fans ranked each Legend of Zelda game from 1 to 5, in order to find out which Zelda games are the most and least popular! Today, let's go through the results.

Note: I have not gone through all of this data. It is anonymised but I have no idea what people wrote in their 3 word responses, so please exercise caution. :)

CREDITS
Oracle of Seasons / Ages
Four Swords Adventures
Breath of the Wild - Leaving the Great Plateau

[ThomasGameDocs]

HEY! WANNA BE IN THE NEXT SURVEY VIDEO?

[darkmonger]

I like how you split the Oracle games into two separate entries, only for them to wind up in the same place anyways

[locked_closet]

I would be curious to see the number of “did not plays” be integrated into the scoring somehow as well. Somewhat like how seeing a restaurant rated 5 stars with only 3 reviews is less trustworthy than a 4.5 one with 3k reviews

[wally]

Everyone says Twilight Princess is edgy but it has so many wholesome moments

[flamm.e]

Link's crossbow training had me in tears, the story is great, the gameplay is fantastic, I just love pressing button whilst pointing at target!

[Marenthyu]

If you have "1 2 3 4 5" as the options, isn't 3.0 the middle value instead of 2.5? For 2.5 to be the middle, your scale would need to include 0

[Henskelion]

In MM, most of the game is divided up into 4's; 4 dungeons, 4 Giants you need to free, and 4 regions in the South, North, West and East of the map. Even taking a picture of the map and drawing a line from Clock Town to each region you go to in order creates the shape of the number 4.

So I was very pleasantly surprised to see the game somehow continue that theme by being placed fourth on this list.

[vhfgamer]

In defense of the original Legend of Zelda on the NES.... it DID come with a map. Every single boxed copy of the game included a map inside, for your gaming pleasure.

That map is often not included if you bought the game used. Of course you wouldn't get it if you're only playing the game on an emulator, or off the Nintendo store, or on the NES mini.

[lieutenantdiamond]

Crazy that Tears of the Kingdom managed to make Breath of the Wild look almost mediocre

[nagit.apologist]

I think part of the reason why some of the older Zeldas are ranked so low is because I imagine that most of the people who responded are probably younger and didnt have gameboys, gamecubes, etc. As you go up the list, the consoles get newer/more recent with the 3ds, Wii, and Wii U and I think thats definitely a big factor in the outcome. I wonder if you did this poll specifically with an older generation of Zelda fans the data would be different! Great video btw :)
edit: Blarg!!!! Stop replying to this i Do Not Care about your zelda Hot Takes!!

[blaziken]

The Oracle games are so underrated, having one game centralized around its combat while the other centralized around puzzle solving gave both games huge strengths, they make for some very clever dungeon designs, and I highly recommend that people play those games

[williambilliam]

I look at the fact that Zelda: A Link to the Past ranking 7th behind more recent entries is actually a *promising* sign that the franchise, against all odds, has NOT peaked. This should be fantastic news!

[theminorthirds]

The original NES Zelda came with a map! It was in the instruction manual, and it showed a old amount of the overworld and the location of the first three dungeons. There’s a lot of mystery to the game, but if you’ve only ever played it on the Switch, then it’s going to be a lot less friendly and more confusing than it’s supposed to be. (Is it the 8- and 16-bit era game that suffers the most without the manual?)

[Korobooshii]

I think for future surveys, having an option for "Haven't played it" would give more accurate results. I almost missed that I was supposed to leave them blank myself, only noticed upon reviewing my scores before sending in.

[Sir_Zoid]

The top 5 were as I expected. Fun to finally see the results of the survey!
Thank you for sharing the results!

[whatavibe]

Man, growing up on Spirit Tracks and Phantom Hourglass it hurts to see them so low on the list. I had so much fun grinding out most of the LoZ DS games, great memories.

[jaybee]

all scores are weighed towards 3 because when given the choice of a middle option, people will often see it as the easiest to pick when uncertain or without a strong care either way. I'd love to see this on a scale from 0-5 instead of 1-5 so that the scores can avoid the centre weighing that a middle option brings

[WielderOfThePencil]

I can get why some people find TP "too edgy" at first glace, but... that game has a lot of goofy characters and moments:

-There's two literal clown NPCs, one runs a minigame where you fly down to Lake Hylia with a chicken, and the other fires you out of a giant, rickety cannon blaring circus music. Multiple times.

-The castle soldiers being portrayed as wimpy cowards is almost always played for laughs.

-The boss Armogohma has a "second phase" where it's just an eyeball, pathetically skittering away from you while silly music plays.

-In Snowpeak Mansion, Yeta tells you where the boss key is, but you wind up finding some cheese and a pumpkin instead. Her husband makes a nice soup out of them.

-Malo Mart.

-There's a minigame in the Hidden Village where you must talk to 20 kitty cats, accompanied by the same wild west music used for Link's shootout against the Bokoblins. Somewhat related: Link can lovingly pick up and carry around every cat and dog in the game. In fact, you can play fetch with a dog by throwing a bone.

-You must sumo wrestle the Gorons... after you sumo wrestle the mayor of your home town. You are both shirtless.

-If you try to break the pots at Hena's Fishing Hole, she'll actually kick you out and refuse to let you back in until you apologize.

I love this game.

[Tonovac]

The Minish Cap is so underatted, I'm surprised it made it that high

[chrom-manandrobin]

I’m glad Majora’s Mask got in top 5. Easily my favorite Zelda game but we all know how divisive the time mechanic is. However, it is a shame that Phantom Hourglass got so low, I really enjoyed that one as a kid.