10 Greatest Legend Of Zelda Games Of All-Time, Ranked By Screen Rant Readers

Published Oct 27, 2026, 10:30 AM EDT

Tom Wilson is a Gaming Features Writer at Screen Rant. Over the past five years, Tom has worked as the Editor-in-Chief at The Game Crater, as a Staff Writer for GamingIntel, a List Writer at TheGamer, and, of course, as a Senior Writer at ScreenRant. Tom has experience writing reviews, guides, news, and features, and has been responsible for teams of writers, training them and editing their work.

Tom graduated with a Masters in Multimedia Journalism, and has since gone on to build up his portfolio of games journalism work.

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The Legend of Zelda is a storied series with so many incredible entries that it can be almost impossible to determine which is the best. While we often try to write lists ranking the best games in a series, and have even given our own opinion on the best Zelda games of all time, just one person's opinion is never enough. This is a subjective medium, one with terrible games people unironically love and amazing games a lot of people hate.

So, we turned to our wonderful readers to vote on which The Legend of Zelda games they believe to be the greatest. In a poll that's been running over the past few weeks, you have voted on the mainline Zelda titles, declaring which game stands at the top and which falls just short of greatness. One can likely imagine which Zelda game nabs the number one spot, but there are a few surprise victories scattered throughout that are sure to please certain fans. So, here is your official ranking of the Legend of Zelda games.

10 Skyward Sword

It should come as no surprise that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was the least popular mainline game in the series among our readers. Skyward Sword is often cited as one of the worst Zelda games (although still far from terrible), with even its HD Nintendo Switch port, which did away with the somewhat frustrating enforced motion controls, failing to rectify many of its mistakes.

Only 1.5% of our readers chose Skyward Sword as the Zelda game they believed to be the best. It is possible that the recent PC re-release of Skyward Sword could change a few people's minds, but that seems unlikely. Skyward Sword is obviously not without merit; its gorgeously stylized and ethereal aesthetic elevates its otherwise middling narrative. The soundtrack is great as always, and its change in scenery from the typical Hyrule was also a bold and interesting choice.

9 A Link Between Worlds

A Link Between Worlds is, perhaps a little surprisingly, only considered the ninth-best Zelda game according to our readers. This wasn't even by a small margin either, as it only got 1.6% of the vote, a mere 0.1% more than the inarguably worse Skyward Sword. Of course, if one had to guess, A Link Between Worlds being less popular among our readers may have to do with the fact that it is largely the same as the more popular A Link to the Past.

While it did innovate on its predecessor and offer numerous improvements in many respects, its reusing of the original game's overworld and gameplay systems perhaps makes it seem a little less spectacular or memorable by comparison. Whatever the reason, our readers simply don't have the fondness for A Link Between Worlds as perhaps some other gamers do.

8 Link's Awakening

Link's Awakening managed to scrape its way to the eighth spot on our reader-defined list, garnering a meager 2.2% of the overall vote. We hadn't specified between the different versions of Link's Awakening in the poll, although one has to assume that the majority of fans are thinking of the remake that was released back in 2019.

However, regardless of which version our readers voted for, Link's Awakening is a fun albeit flawed game that perhaps does deserve a low spot in the rankings. It isn't terrible (none of the Zelda games are), but it is rather simplistic in its design, likely as a consequence of it originally releasing on the Game Boy. Its smaller scope and more restrictive design make it feel like a very traditional Zelda title, one that is enjoyable, but never feels terribly ambitious.

7 Tears of the Kingdom

This one may come as a surprise to some: Tears of the Kingdom only got 5.1% of the vote. The glowing TotK reviews and commercial success of the game certainly made me think our readers would like it a lot more, and yet, here it is in seventh place. Again, Tears of the Kingdom isn't a bad game, but the more you think about it, the more understandable it is that our readers voted it so low when compared to other Zelda games.

Like A Link Between Worlds, Tears of the Kingdom merely iterated on a previous Zelda game. While the changes it brought absolutely helped improve the already revolutionary Breath of the Wild, they didn't deliver the same genre-defining suckerpunch that BotW had a few years earlier. It was never going to have the same surprising effect on players and the industry as Breath of the Wild, and that understandably pushes it down a few ranks with our readers.

6 Wind Waker

I suspect there may be a few qualms about Wind Waker only managing to scrape into sixth place, but then again, it was our readers that ultimately decided its fate. Wind Waker is obviously a very popular game and a title that many would love to see remade for the Nintendo Switch 2. Indeed, whenever we've covered Wind Waker remake leaks, readers have often come to us in droves hoping that they turn out to be real.

However, despite being a popular title, when compared to the other remaining mainline Zelda games, it is evidently not as popular. It only managed to get 5.8% of the vote, just 0.3% more than Tears of the Kingdom. It is a testament to just how great the other games on this list are, and also how great the series is as a whole, that one of the best games ever made can be ranked so low.

5 Majora's Mask

Now, depending on the kind of Zelda fan you are, the fifth entry in this list should either be Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask. The debate between which of these two games is superior has been waging on for decades, with no sign of stopping any time soon. That's not terribly surprising, as both titles offer similar gameplay experiences while delivering vastly different narrative experiences that will ultimately resonate with different types of people.

However, it would appear that our readers don't subscribe to the notion that Majora's Mask is better than Ocarina of Time, as the former has only made it to the fifth spot and the latter is, well, you'll see. Majora's Mask is still a great game, though, and fifth place is a very respectable position to be in. 7.1% of our readers chose it as the Zelda game they feel is the best, which is a respectable amount and significantly higher than the previous entries.

4 Breath of the Wild

Nintendo

It should come as no surprise that Breath of the Wild has managed to garner such a high rank in this list. What may be surprising, however, is that it has achieved fourth place despite only getting precisely 10% of the vote. That is, of course, an indication of just how popular the other three games are, but also a surprising indication that, at least amongst Screen Rant readers, Breath of the Wild is not widely considered the best Zelda game.

It goes without saying that BotW is one of the greatest open-world games of all time, having practically established the language of the genre going forward. However, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a great Zelda game, a criticism levied at the game back when it first came out. Lacking the traditional dungeons of a Zelda title and ditching the linear exploration for its iconic open-world, Breath of the Wild pushed the industry to new heights, but, in doing so, left behind a little of what makes The Legend of Zelda so special.

3 Twilight Princess

Twilight Princess has one of the worst introductions of any video game ever, but that hasn't stopped it from being an incredibly memorable and unique Zelda adventure that continues to be a series highlight. Taking the more mature and surreal elements of Majora's Mask and ramping them up to eleven, Twilight Princess is the moodiest and perhaps most serious entry in the series. Its narrative is one of the best in the series too, offering up memorable characters and a thrilling conclusion to the Hero of Time trilogy.

Twilight Princess beat Breath of the Wild by a not insignificant 2.9%, garnering 12.9% of the votes in total. Third place feels right for Twilight Princess, a game that doesn't always get it right, but when it does, it absolutely perfects it. It is one of the most unique and beautiful Legend of Zelda games, and it would be great to see Nintendo revisit this style of Zelda experience soon.

2 A Link to the Past

Of course, as alluded to earlier, A Link to the Past shot all the way up to the number two spot in this reader-decided list. It is not surprising to see it be so popular among fans, especially considering it is widely considered to be the best Zelda game of all time, or, at the very least, the best 2D Zelda title. A Link to the Past perfected the top-down Zelda experience, offering an exceptional level of experimentation with its light and dark worlds, as well as great dungeons, bosses, item design, and lore.

A whopping 26.3% of our readers voted for A Link to the Past as their top Zelda game. That means that 16.3.% more people voted for it than Breath of the Wild, and a staggering 24.7% more people voted for it than its successor, A Link Between Worlds. It truly is a phenomenal Legend of Zelda game and well deserving of such critical acclaim.

1 Ocarina of Time

Absolutely no one will be surprised to see The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in the number one spot. It is the only game in existence to have achieved a perfect score of 100 on Metacritic, implying it truly is the greatest game of all time, at least according to critics. Our fans love it too, with 27.5% of you voting for it as being the best Zelda game ever made. It just about surpassed A Link to the Past, but perhaps deservedly so, as Ocarina of Time often feels like the epitome of the Zelda experience.

We couldn't count the remake as it hadn't been released at the time of the poll, but it will be interesting to hear about how our fans find it compared to the original N64 title. Nevertheless, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, with its memorable dungeons, gorgeous visuals, excellent rendition of Hyrule, and engaging combat, remains a classic for a reason and is absolutely deserving of the number one spot on this list.