Best Princess Zelda versions

Tears of the Kingdom (Hylian Tunic) wins 66% of its duels and tops the Zelda – The Princesses ranking ahead of Tears of the Kingdom (Zonai Dress).

The top two spots belong to Tears of the Kingdom variants, separated by just 7 ELO points at 1441 and 1434. Breath of the Wild secures third place with 1415 points after 169 duels, while Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity (Prayer Robe) follows at rank 4 with 1413 points and a 63% win rate across 202 duels. The sharpest divide appears between ranks 4 and 5, where 28 ELO points separate the Prayer Robe from the Hylian Tunic versions of the same character. Modern iterations dominate the upper ranks, reflecting player preference for recent designs and detailed character models. At the bottom, The Legend of Zelda sits at rank 25 with 821 points and a 15% win rate over 142 duels, suggesting the original sprite struggles to compete against contemporary portrayals despite its historical significance.

This ranking draws from 2553 duels cast by 31 players across 25 contenders, updated on 12 October 2026. The data captures how visual presentation and art direction shape player attachment to different versions of the same character across decades of games. Head to VAINKEURZ to vote in your own duels and influence the standings.

Updated on October 12, 2026

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.

How our rankings are made →