The prequel idea paid off
Someone, somewhere, whether it’s at Nintendo or Omega Force, is smiling ear to ear right now.
Whoever’s idea it was to tie Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity directly into Breath of the Wild is a genius. The whole “prequel” and alternate history angle fit very well with the general audacious feel of the Warriors series, and it looks like that gambit paid off financially as well.
According to Koei Tecmo, Age of Calamity shipped three million worldwide units, which to them, makes it the best-selling Warriors game of all time. This period technically started around the year 2000, when the first proper Dynasty Warriors (Dynasty Warriors 2, a sequel to a fighter) was released. The publisher also notes that they will continue to distribute the demo for the game, in case you’ve been meaning to check it out, but are worried that they might pull it.
Remember the distinction between shipped and sold here. For Koei Tecmo, it’s their most successful Warriors game. But it remains to be seen how many of those units will be sold-through. As a general rule, modern mainline Dynasty Warriors titles sell roughly one million units worldwide throughout the lifetime of each game. Spinoffs can fare better: the original Hyrule Warriors also previously smashed Warriors records back in 2015.
I think it’s safe to say that there will be another Hyrule Warriors at some point, as well as DLC for Age of Calamity and potentially a “Complete” edition on a future Nintendo console.
Koei Tecmo [Twitter via Gematsu]
