From its humble beginnings on the NES to the latest 3D adventure, The Legend of Zelda games are undeniably some of the best games of all time. What began as a little adventure game about a boy in a green tunic rescuing a princess has turned into a multigenerational series with tons of games across all of Nintendo’s hardware. Whether you love the 2D games or massive 3D adventures, it is a tough task to pick the best Zelda game.
What’s even harder is understanding the Zelda timeline. After the first two games, it wasn’t clear if the subsequent games were connected at all. Each game has a different incarnation of Link, and usually Zelda and Ganon as well, but everything else appeared to only have loose ties, if any. For years, fans worked to try and make sense of the timeline as games came out, but eventually, Nintendo set the record straight with the official timeline in the The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia book (which has been converted into a handy wiki). However, since that book’s publication, we’ve had a few new games come out that we need to find a way to place in the existing timeline … or should we say timelines.
This is by far the most complex timeline of any Nintendo franchise, so take notes if you need to as we draw our Master Swords and Z-target the true Zelda timeline.
All Zelda games in release order
Beginning in 1987 1986 in Japan) as one of the best NES games and showing no signs of stopping, there are almost too many Zelda games to play if you’re just starting now. However, playing them in the order they came out is never a bad way to go since that’s how everyone else first experienced them, and you will get a nice upward trend in quality (for the most part).
That said, we do have to cut out games that have no place in the real timeline, are pure spinoffs, or are otherwise non-canon (sorry CDI games). Here’s every major Zelda game in release order.
- The Legend of Zelda (1987)
- Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link (1988)
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1992)
- The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (1993)
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (2000)
- The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (2001)
- The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (2001)
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2003)
- The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Aventures (2004)
- The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (2004)
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006)
- The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (2007)
- The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (2009)
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (2011)
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (2013)
- The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes (2015)
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017)
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023)
All Zelda games in chronological order
This is where we get into the real meat of the Zelda franchise. Back before it was official, most fans had already worked out there there were multiple timelines going on. That’s true, but there are technically three of them. There’s the Child Timeline, Adult Timeline, and Fallen Hero Timeline. Each of these stems from Ocarina of Time, which makes sense as that game so heavily focuses on time travel.
The timeline begins simply enough, but we will pause to explain where each split occurs and why and tackle each branch one at a time. We won’t spoil the events of each individual game, but will have to spoil some aspects of the games where timelines split.
The Legend of the Goddesses and the Hero
- Skyward Sword
- The Minish Cap
- Four Swords
- Ocarina of Time
There are three possible outcomes based on the possible ways Ocarina could end. These are the aforementioned Child Timeline, Adult Timeline, and Fallen Hero Timeline.
The Child Timeline
This timeline is the one players will see by beating the game and occurs in the event that Link defeats Ganon in Ocarina of Time and is returned to the past as a child by Zelda. He then warns Zelda and Hyrule about Ganondorf, stopping his plot before it can begin. Link then later leaves Hyrule.
- Majora’s Mask
- Twilight Princess
- Four Swords Adventures
The Adult Timeline
For the Adult Timeline, things go mostly the same as the Child Timeline, except after being sent back in time, Link didn’t warn Zelda or anyone about Ganondorf. Instead, he simply disappears and no one is there to oppose Ganondorf’s rule.
- The Wind Waker
- Phantom Hourglass
- Spirit Tracks
The Fallen Hero Timeline
By far the most interesting and dark timeline is the Fallen Hero Timeline. In this scenario, Link simply loses to Ganon during Ocarina of Time. This allows the latter to claim all three pieces of the Triforce. Somehow, Zelda and the people of Hyrule manage to trap Ganon and the Triforce within the Sacred Realm before he can take over the entire world.
- A Link to the Past
- Link’s Awakening
- Oracle of Ages
- Oracle of Seasons
- The Legend of Zelda
- Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link
Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom
That just leaves us with the two most recent Zelda games as of now: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. The unfortunate truth is that Nintendo has once again left it ambiguous, but not completely. In an interview with Famitsu, producer Eiji Aunuma and director Hidemaro Fujibayashi were asked where these titles fell in the timeline.
Aunuma started off by stating: “Well of course it’s at the very end. But, I get what you’re asking, it’s which timeline is it the end of?” Fujibayashi added, “That’s … up to the player’s imagination, isn’t it?”
The two prevailing thoughts are that these games either take place at the end of the Child Timeline or somehow reunify all the timelines back into one. However, there is evidence to support and contradict it falling at the end of any or all of the timelines.
Unless some new information comes out, you can simply decide for yourself where these games fall in the Zelda lore.