The Legend of Zelda is a video game series created by Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo; some installments and re-releases have been outsourced to Flagship, Grezzo, and Tantalus Media.

The series centers on the various incarnations of Link, a courageous young man of the elf-like Hylian race, and Princess Zelda, a princess within the bloodline of the goddess Hylia, as they fight to save the land of Hyrule from Ganon, an evil warlord turned demon king who wishes to use the Triforce, a sacred relic that can grant any wish its user desires when complete, to remake the world in his own dark image. If someone with a heart that does not possess a balance of Power, Courage, and Wisdom attempts to touch the Triforce, it will split into three triangles and bond with three people whose hearts embody the required virtue. While the conflict with Ganon serves as a backbone for the series, some games have featured other settings and antagonists, with Link traveling or being sent to these other lands in their time of need.

Since The Legend of Zelda was released in 1986, the series has expanded to include 21 entries on all of Nintendo's major game consoles, as well as a number of spin-offs. An American animated TV series based on the games aired in 1989 and manga adaptations commissioned by Nintendo have been produced in Japan since 1997. The Legend of Zelda is one of Nintendo's most successful franchises; several of its entries are considered among the greatest video games of all time.

Gameplay of The Legend of Zelda games feature a mix of puzzles, action-adventure, and exploration. These elements used to be constant throughout the series, with small refinements and additions in each new game. Later installments include stealth gameplay, where the player must avoid enemies while proceeding through a level, as well as racing elements. Depending on the game, players control Link or Princess Zelda from a fixed top-down perspective or in a 3D game world with a free-roaming camera.

Zelda games can be beaten with a minimal amount of exploration and side quests, but the player is frequently rewarded with helpful items or increased abilities for solving puzzles or exploring hidden areas. Some items are consistent and appear many times throughout the series, while others are unique to a single game. Staples of the series include bombs that can both act as weapons and open blocked or hidden doorways; boomerangs, which can kill or paralyze enemies; keys for locked doors; shields; bows and arrows; light sources; magical rods, hammers, and musical instruments; digging tools; and a grappling hook-like device called the hookshot. Items can be bought, rented, or found as a puzzle-solving reward, depending on the game. In 2017's Breath of the Wild and its 2023 sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, swords and other weapons originally found in dungeons or purchased from shops are now found in the game world and stolen from defeated enemies. These are generally used through by swapping out to one or more selected button prompts through a menu, while the sword is usually fixed. Echoes copied by Zelda in Echoes of Wisdom also attack or clear paths with bombs. Early in certain Zelda games, swords are given to Link and/or found in a secluded area. More powerful swords, or special sword abilities, can be discovered by Link or taught to him in the games. Existing weapons can also receive upgrades.

The motion controls of 2011's Skyward Sword, using either the Wii's Wii MotionPlus or the Nintendo Switch's Joy-Con, simulate sword fighting by swinging the controller in specific directions to attack enemies or counter an enemy's attempt to block. Breath of the Wild introduced a physics engine—allowing for physics-based solutions such as crushing an enemy via rolling a boulder onto it—and what was called a chemistry engine, a rule-based state calculator in which various elements (fire, water, wind, etc.) interact with other objects and elements in different ways. Echoes of Wisdom is also a departure from other games' style of combat, as the playable Zelda is primarily unable to directly hit enemies on her own. Instead, she uses an item called the Tri Rod to create echoes via coping objects and enemies and recreating them to solve puzzles and defeat enemies, even if the object or enemy in question is not in the area or region her current situation is. Another physics-based technique in newer Zelda titles involves using certain abilities to allow Link or Zelda to remotely move or drop objects on top of enemies, drop enemies down holes, or propel themselves across gaps.

Although the games contain role-playing elements (Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is the only one to include an experience system), they emphasize straightforward hack-and-slash-style combat. This has led to much debate over whether or not Zelda games should be classified as action RPGs, a genre on which the series has had a strong influence. In 1992, series co-creator Shigeru Miyamoto disagreed with the label, classifying Zelda as "a real-time adventure game". He said that he was "not interested in systems where everything in the game is decided by stats and numbers" but wanted "to preserve as much of that 'live' feeling as possible", and felt that action games are better suited to convey to players. In 2012, Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki listed A Link to the Past as one of his top RPGs, alongside video games such as Dragon Quest III, Wizardry, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and the collectable card game, Magic: The Gathering.

The games pioneered a number of features that were to become industry standards. The original Zelda was the first console game with a save function that enabled players to stop playing and then resume later. Ocarina of Time introduced a targeting system that let the player lock the camera on to enemy or friendly non-player characters which simplified 3D combat.