Zelda Direct Sweeps X Trends Top to Bottom, Same-Day State of Play Nowhere to Be Found

From our other sites

The story

On the night of September 8, 2026, Nintendo’s “Zelda Direct” and Sony’s “State of Play” aired in almost the same time slot. Zelda Direct was a tight 30-minute broadcast built around a single new title, while State of Play ran two hours and covered dozens of titles — yet Zelda-related terms dominated the top of X (formerly Twitter) trends almost completely. Reports even surfaced claiming State of Play “didn’t even crack the top 30 trends.” In 5ch livestream threads, users expressed shock that broadcast scale and buzz didn’t line up at all. Some posts noted a similar pattern showed up in US trends too.

What people said

1AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:35
It's too popular, man
2AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:35
Are you mocking State of Play for getting zero trending spots?
23AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:40
Re: #2
Can't really blame people for mocking it
88AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:53
Re: #2
Just the movie title card
Lego for like one second lol
17AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:38
Was there something like a ghost ship in it?

Don't remember that
I vaguely remember Koume (a Zelda character) though
67AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:48
Re: #17
Pretty sure that's the Temple of Darkness
70AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:48
Re: #17
Probably the Temple of Darkness
I remember it 'cause I died to the boss a bunch of times and rode the ship a few times too
72AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:49
Re: #17
Probably the Temple of Darkness
26AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:41
This gap in enthusiasm…
Why'd it turn out like this

State of Play


Zelda
29AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:41
Re: #26
Sony should've just turned off comments for State of Play 😭
46AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:43
Re: #26
State of Play was fun in its own way
Just from you guys roasting it, though lol
54AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:45
Godzilla Minus Zero had rotten timing
It went head-to-head and basically got buried in the trends
56AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:46
Re: #54
Obvious or not, they should've steered clear of Zelda's timeslot
150AnonymousSep 9, 2026 00:16
Re: #54
As a Godzilla fan who's been thinking "what happened to Japan?" ever since Shin Godzilla, this much is fine by me
55AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:45
■Zelda Direct
・30 minutes
・1 title

■State of Play
・2 hours
・Dozens of titles

No way it lost with numbers like that…
86AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:53
Re: #55
[Bad News] Zelda Direct commentary threads couldn't even burn through 3 threads… meanwhile State of Play finished 5
https://krsw.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/ghard/1788878363/

Zelda Direct: 30 min, 3 threads
State of Play: 120 min, 5 threads

Stuff like this always ends up being the sticking point
80AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:51
Wait, did State of Play seriously not even make the top 30 trends? (´・ω・`)
83AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:52
Re: #80
Seriously, zero…
Didn't even come close…
85AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:53
Re: #80
A few terms did squeak in, but it never hit #1, and it never dominated the trends even for a moment
87AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:53
Re: #80
No way that's real
Wait, what?
91AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:55
I mean, almost the entire top 30 is Zelda
That's insane




94AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:56
Re: #91
Whoa
This is what a genuinely popular game looks like
96AnonymousSep 8, 2026 23:57
Re: #91
Will a PlayStation game ever manage this?
115AnonymousSep 9, 2026 00:03
Re: #91
There's like an "are there even that many Zelda-related words" amount of them
102AnonymousSep 9, 2026 00:00
The US trends look about the same
104AnonymousSep 9, 2026 00:01
Re: #102
Zelda fever sweeping the entire world?! 🥰
106AnonymousSep 9, 2026 00:01
Re: #102
Guess it's the top dog over there too
110AnonymousSep 9, 2026 00:02
Re: #102
Godzilla's strong in the US too
Guess all that MonsterVerse groundwork paid off
119AnonymousSep 9, 2026 00:05
Navi's voice trending is honestly hilarious

Navi's voice >>> an unbeatable wall >>> State of Play

That's basically what happened
122AnonymousSep 9, 2026 00:06
Re: #119
All of State of Play's two hours losing to just Navi's voice… come on 😭
130AnonymousSep 9, 2026 00:08
Re: #119
Hey! lol Listen! lol (Navi's famous catchphrase)
132AnonymousSep 9, 2026 00:08
Re: #119
Leave them alone lmao
140AnonymousSep 9, 2026 00:11
Zelda somehow became popular with casual gamers too at some point, huh
143AnonymousSep 9, 2026 00:12
Re: #140
Gotta be Breath of the Wild. That's what really grew the fan base
144AnonymousSep 9, 2026 00:13
Re: #140
With BOTW it fully broke free of being a niche series and became a mainstream game
Before that the Zelda series never sold all that well
147AnonymousSep 9, 2026 00:15
Re: #140
Breath of the Wild was just on another level
A legit all-time classic, and that's when the series shot up to being a genuinely popular franchise, in name and in reality
149AnonymousSep 9, 2026 00:15
Since they've got voice actors now, it wouldn't have been weird to include a voice actor interview
151AnonymousSep 9, 2026 00:17
Re: #149
Doing stuff like that is probably why State of Play sucks
153AnonymousSep 9, 2026 00:17
Re: #149
Nintendo Direct has never once done a voice actor interview though…
160AnonymousSep 9, 2026 00:18
Re: #149
You're saying that on purpose, right lol

Background and Key Points of This Discussion

“State of Play” is a broadcast Sony holds on an irregular basis, and this installment ran two hours covering a large number of titles, while Zelda Direct was a focused 30-minute broadcast built around a single new title. Going by broadcast length and number of titles alone, State of Play should have had the edge — yet Zelda-related terms dominated the top of X’s trends, and the thread has been buzzing with surprise at this reversal. That said, it’s worth noting that trending lists shift based on a mix of factors — regional differences, the momentum of live commentary, bot activity, and more — so this alone isn’t a clean, apples-to-apples popularity comparison between the two. There’s also the view that the series broke through to casual audiences after “Breath of the Wild,” a claim that lines up with actual sales growth and isn’t purely fans talking up their favorite.

*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Geha)) thread “Twitter trends are a total Zelda takeover 😆www.”

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *