The Legend of Zelda debuted in 1986 and has become one of the best selling action RPG titles. The Zelda timeline was always a topic of debate along with some games being called into question whether or not they were canon. That all ended in 2018 with the release of The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia. This book showed an in depth look at what the Zelda timeline officially looked like. In the table below I tried to simplify the timeline from the encyclopedia which at first glance can be a little overwhelming.

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Numbers read below pertain to the chronological order​

1-4: normal part of the timeline, all branching happens after #4 (Ocarina of Time)

5.1-5.8: This timeline occurs if Link fails to defeat Ganon at the end of Ocarina of Time, leading to the                 Imprisoning War

6.1-6.3: Link defeats Ganon at the end of Ocarina of Time. Zelda sends Link back in time as a child with               all the wisdom he has gained to warn the Zelda in the past of the horrifying fate of Hyrule

7.1-7.3: Link is sent back in time and disappears from the present becoming a legend himself over the                 course of years and ages

8-9: Takes place after all previous games in the series without specifying a connection to any of the               three timelines