Pikmin 4 Has Sold 2.61 Million Units In Just Over Two Months

Easily a game of the year contender for me. Hopefully they have some DLC in the works, I would love a proper 2 player mode.

I can't even tell you how popular pikmin is in Japan right now. Every elementary and middle school class i have knows pikmin, they come up all the time, so many kids of different ages know the pikmin song and I see them on bag charms even more than pikachu

Great to see it selling so well, I really didn't think there was going to be much of a pulse in the series when it released.

Great to see and very well deserved. Safe to say after P3D's success and P4's bigger success, this series will be another mainstay Nintendo franchise. I don't think it'll be another ten years until we see a new entry in the series lol.

I wish I’d used my game voucher for Pikmin and not TotK, 😝

Yes this is well deserved. Pikmin 4 is a masterpiece. I had a great time 100%ing this one. I’m happy to know we will be seeing more from this one.

Pikmin 4 is excellent, happy it sold well. One of my absolute favorites of this year.

I still need to pick this one up! I have played all the other entries (except for the Nintendo 3DS entry, which doesn't count imo), and I have been itching for some RTS style gameplay. No game does it in a cuter fashion than Pikmin!

Cool, maybe my US version will be a rarity in 20 years or so.

Pikmin 4 is so great! I wish it was even more popular in the West, however.

Pikmin Occupational Hazards on YouTube has 30+ million views on multiple channels. I was hoping that sales would be better to be honest.

Well, when you simplify a series for the casual audience as much as this game did, of course it will become the best selling entry.

I desperately wanted Pikmin 4 to succeed prior to release, but I ended up hating the game, so this has become a huge Monkey's Paw scenario for me. It honestly depresses me to see a game that so wildly misunderstands everything that made Pikmin good in the first place become the best selling entry in the series. Now future entries are only going to stray even further from what made the first 2-3 games so great, and that's something I have no interest in seeing unfold. Just like Zelda, this series has left its most dedicated long-time fans behind, and I have nothing to look forward to anymore. It hurts even more that this happened with Pikmin, since it was always one of my absolute most favourite franchises that I cherished dearly. Now it's one that I couldn't care less about the future of. Oh well, at least I have Pikmin 1+2 and Pikmin 3 Deluxe to go back to.

P.S. - To anyone confused by my attitude towards Pikmin 4, I grew up with the first three games, so I am one of this series' biggest fans, and I'm more than willing to explain in full detail every single thing this game gets wrong compared to the original trilogy.

@Eggolor as another longtime fan of both series who loves Pikmin 4 and Breath of the Wild, I’m interested in your opinions.

Happy to see that the game is selling well. I'm getting it when it's slightly cheaper so I can't say "can't wait" but I wouldn't complain about a discount within the next 6 months to a year...

I bought the physical Pikmin 1+2 a couple of weeks ago. Really enjoying that. Planning to go back and finally finish Pikmin 3 once I'm done with those (about a quarter of the way through 2, finished 1 last week, up to the final boss in 3) and then I'll get 4. Hoping to save a few quid on it at Black Friday.

@Eggolor Counterpoint: As a dedicated long term fan I thought 4 was easily the best game in the series.

I think it is inarguable that the 4 has massive quality of life and AI improvements over previous titles. What it loses in removing the overall time counter it more than makes up for with the Dandori challenges. It created a game that can be played by everyone and allows the cuteness of the game to shine while allowing more experienced players to be challenged. I was able to create a perfectly paced experience for myself where I could enjoy exploring the cute colorful world and then step it up with the Dandori challenges when I wanted something more. Plus getting platinum for all the Dandori levels was significantly more challenging and fun than the overall counter in previous games.

@LastFootnote "Newest game bad", this is the mindset that most Nintendo fans have when a long-running IP gets a new installment. I've seen it happen time and time again (Mario, Zelda, Pokemon etc.).

@LastFootnote @RBRTMNZ Strap in, this comment will be a long one.

A lot of my issues with Pikmin 4 stem from it being a continuity reboot. This game throws out 20 years worth of story that was slowly built up over the course of the previous games. Pikmin 3's ending in particular left several questions regarding the Plasm Wraith and the frequent ship crashes unanswered. Now we will most likely never get answers to any of those questions. It's a slap in the face to those who got invested in the world and characters.

This game's cast is far too bloated, filled with one-note characters that say nothing of value and never learn to shut up, killing the lonely atmosphere that made the older games, especially the first one, so special. On top of that, the main character being a silent self-insert for the player makes bonding with them impossible.

Olimar and Louie also have their characterisation hurt by the reboot. Olimar never went through all of the struggles seen in the previous games and never bonded with the Pikmin. Louie, who had ambigious morality in Pikmin 2 (and to a lesser extent 3) is now a deranged sociopath who straight up attempts to murder you for trying to rescue him. This horribly misrepresents his established character.

As for gameplay, this game is far too intrusive when it comes to tutorials and dialogue. It constantly holds your hand to a patronising degree, never trusting you to make your own decisions. This is perfectly exemplified by the blight on this game's controls that is automatic lock-on. 90% of the time it makes the game braindead easy, and the other 10% it actively hinders you by locking onto something you actively don't want to be aiming at. And it can't be turned off. It's ironic that a feature meant to help players ends up becoming such a huge source of frustration.

Additionally, due to Dandori battles and challenges being incorporated into the main story instead of being separate modes, the difficulty is wildly inconsistent, which hurts the overall experience. Players who want a challenge have to slog through hours of mindless gameplay (before having to deal with auto lock-on making things needlessly more difficult), and those who want a relaxed experience will have a rude awakening when they reach these battles/challenges.

And then there's Oatchi. Oatchi single-handedly destroys the balance of this game. He can do almost everything Pikmin can do but better, and manages to overshadow the Pikmin in their own game. His inclusion also destroys the multi-tasking aspect of the series. Far too often, you'll come across a hazard or puzzle that can't be overcome without Oatchi, which, for a game all about encouraging good "Dandori" by splitting up to accomplish more, is extremely counter-intuitive. Pikmin 3 Deluxe already perfected the controls and multi-tasking element (not to mention the multiplayer), so all they had to do was copy what that game did.

Lastly, the music in this game is far too subdued and largely forgettable, which is a problem shared with the newer Zelda titles. Even Hey! Pikmin has a better soundtrack than this game. (If you haven't heard that game's soundtrack, I recommend giving it a listen. It blows 4's soundtrack out of the water.)

Tl;dr - Reboot ruins the story, characters and atmosphere, game is far too easy until it's suddenly not, music is non-existent, Oatchi breaks the game, automatic lock-on.

A long and well deserved victory for the Pikmin franchise. This IP has deserved success since its inception and it's been so frustrating always seeing it get overlooked for miscellaneous reasons. Hopefully this means that the next game won't take a borderline decade to come out because I can't keep doing that x'D

Very pleased for Pikmin! It's crazy that what I would have thought would be one of their more niche titles has achieved pretty solid sales. I applaud the marketing, but I'm even more surprised that Pikmin 3 Deluxe sold as well as it did!
Now Pikmin 4 just has to bring back proper co-op and I'll be a happy, happy man.

@Tarolusa For the record, I loved Super Mario Odyssey, and I really like the look of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, so my reasoning for disliking Pikmin 4 goes much deeper than just "new game bad." Maybe read my comment explaining this game's problems rather than just immediately dismissing my opinion as little more than blind hate.

@Eggolor I do appreciate the thoughtful and reasoned response but I disagree with a lot of it.

I don't play Nintendo games for the overarching story and never expected or wanted much for this but I can understand how it might suck to lose it if you're invested but in any event I think the games does a good job of story telling within the game.

I liked the silly goofy cast and thought that Colin in particular with his anti-work comments was a gem. I personally got as much enjoyment out of their funny little quips than I do from most AAA games with expansive narratives.

Olimar never really resonated with me and was fine playing a blank slate though I do agree that Louie was handled in a very silly manner.

Yes Nintendo games have too much tutorial but after 60 hours of Pikmin 4 that complaint largely faded away for me and I even found myself checking up on a couple of tutorials later in the game when I needed to improve for platinum rankings.

Overall I thought just passing the Dandori challenges was very easy. I don't think I failed even one of them so I doubt they were much of a difficulty spike for casual gamers but I am very good at games so perhaps I am being a bit self centered. In any event I did think that the rankings made for a super fun challenge to perfect my Dandori skills and I was never bored and always charmed by the mellow collectathon outside of those challenges. I did have the occasional issue with the targeting but again as far as quality of life and controlling the Pikim is concerned Pikin 4 is easily best in class.

I thought the game did some really smart things with level design regarding Otachi and how his considerable power changes the game balance. Several of the Dandori challenges, especially the post game cave, absolutely required you to be very smart about how you used Otachi to get the platinum. You needed to be very smart about how you split Pikmin between the player avatar and Otachi and you needed to be very thoughtful about the tasks you assigned Otachi. You couldn't just overpower the course with Otachi nor could you just assign him to any big task. You had to be very thoughtful about where you used Otachi. That is what I love in video games and especially RTS games. I love when I need to make smart mission critical decisions in real time. Your analysis of Otachi actually makes me wonder if you bothered with getting platinum on everything because of how necessary his power is for those challenges. If you have not I highly recommend it and think it could change your feelings about the game.

Nothing about the music stands out to me besides how incredibly similar and unremarkable it is within the series. It's often very similar or even exactly the same as previous games.

Playing this now as I bought it a few weeks back.

I couldn't be happier that it's selling well, and I'll be adding a couple to those numbers as Christmas presents.

I was in Japan recently and loved seeing all the metro adverts and merch for the game. I got plushies of all the Pikmin types and an Oatchi 😁

@Eggolor I grew up with Pikmin 1 and 2 I dont understand whats bad about 4?

@RBRTMNZ Thank you for taking the time to read my comment and giving a respectful reply rather than just acting dismissive like some other people.

It sounds like you don't value story and characters in games as much as I do. There's not necessarily anything wrong with that, but I wouldn't even say this game's story is very good on its own. As soon as Olimar is saved, the Rescue Corps immediately blast off while leaving the S.S. Dolphin, other castaways and uncured leaflings stuck on the planet, and only turn around because Oatchi is sick. This implies that they were so focused on rescuing Olimar to the point where they were willing to just up and abandon the rest of their mission as soon as he's saved, and care more for the wellbeing of their dog than the people they're supposed to be saving. Some rescue squad...

Regarding Olimar not resonating with you, did you ever take the time to read through the Piklopedia entries in Pikmin 2 and 3? Those games gave such a deep insight into Olimar's mind and personal life, making him one of Nintendo's best written protagonists. That's why the main character being a generic avatar in Pikmin 4 is so disappointing, since we don't get that same insight. Sure, Olimar's notes are in 4's Piklopedia, but you have to play for hours to unlock them. Until then, you're stuck with Dalmo, who offers the most worthless and repetitive commentary in the entire series ("this creature is so cute!", repeat ad nausuem). Also, the fact the game is a reboot leads to glaring inconsistencies in Olimar's notes, since the devs just copy-pasted a majority of his notes from 2 and 3, leading to him referencing creatures that he shouldn't have encountered before according to this game.

I'm someone who likes to play most games to completion, and I've fully completed every previous Pikmin game with zero Pikmin deaths multiple times, so I'm pretty good at these games. The few times I did go for platinum medals in the Dandori battles/challenges, it was extremely annoying, because I realised just how essential the upgrades for Oatchi are. You can't even handicap yourself for a greater challenge by not buying upgrades since they're practically mandatory for full completion. So you either make the easy parts of the game (most of it) harder by not buying any upgrades, but in turn make the actual difficult parts beyond frustrating, or you cave in, buy the upgrades and steamroll the whole game without a problem. That is, until auto lock-on rears its ugly head again.

In regards to controlling Pikmin, I'd still say Pikmin 3 Deluxe did it better. The lock-on and pathfinding was much better, and the game didnt stop you from throwing Pikmin at an object once you'd thrown the minimum amount required to carry it. You also weren't limited to only 3 Pikmin types at any given time. All 3 was missing was the lineup trumpet, which is in Pikmin 4, but it's unlocked so late into the game that it barely gets any use, so its inclusion ultimately doesn't matter.

And yes, you can brute force entire challenges with Oatchi. Just to demonstrate how broken he is, Gimmick Gambit can be beaten in 10 seconds by abusing Oatchi's jump. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6GJx0wqZio

Lastly, saying the tutorials get less intrusive after 60 hours isn't exactly a very good look when it comes to selling the game to somebody.

I have no desire to give this game a second chance. The fact that it's a reboot alone has killed my interest in it. If this is the direction of the series from now on, I'm done with Pikmin going forward.

@Eggolor It's not that I do not like story but more that it is not something I tend to look for from Nintendo games. That all sounds interesting and it's a bummer that they dropped it and couldn't at least come up with a story mechanism that allowed for both a reset and previous lore to continue.

I hear you on being done with the experience but I really think, as a Pikmin fan, you could have had a different and better experience if you met the game where its at rather than focusing on all the ways it is not past games. If you ever get the urge to give it another go play the challenges with a fully leveled up Otachi. I was a 7/10 on this game before doing all the platinum medals and a solid 9.5/10 afterward. I definitely had some unfair deaths due to the controls but that is very true of every Pikmin game. Overall it is masterpiece level RTS in my opinion.

Also, I think that video you linked is an outlier that could easily be patched out by moving that final platform like 3 pixels further away but it's Nintendo so that will not happen.

I gotta hand it to 'em, they even convinced me to purchase this one. And I actually finished it! Rolled credits and everything. Only did some of the postgame, but I fell off every other Pikmin game after an hour. Good game, I'm impressed.

This is the power of the Switch, it boosts almost every Nintendo franchises sales.

@nimnio That argument falls apart when you realise that Nintendo released Pikmin 1-3 on the Switch prior to 4's release in order to familiarise new players with the series and its story, with Pikmin 3 Deluxe specifically adding new story content that addressed unresolved plot points from the original game. People are still discovering this series' origins because all of the games are so accessible now, so suddenly rebooting the story in the 4th numbered entry confuses new fans and alienates older ones. Nobody asked for a reboot, plain and simple.

It was so easy for them to create a plot that is unrelated to the previous games without retconning the entire series out of existence (see every other Nintendo franchise with the exception of Star Fox, which is a separate case), and the fact that they chose not to do that feels like a decision intentionally made to punish long-time fans for being invested in these games.

Additionally, it's not like Pikmin's story was ever that complicated, so why would Nintendo feel the need to reboot it in the first place? It certainly wasn't for the benefit of new players who don't know what happened before. It's simply an idiotic decision by developers that likely didn't care about the game being consistent with the older titles.

But, let's just pretend for a moment that a reboot was actually necessary. Nintendo could have at least answered all of the lingering questions from Pikmin 3's ending instead of dangling the promise of answers over our heads for 10 years, only to pull the rug out from underneath us at the last moment by saying "surprise, none of that stuff matters anymore!"

The overall point I'm trying to make here is that a cohesive world and story can elevate a game's quality beyond what it normally would be. Acting like they're not important only leads to us getting worse experiences overall. I don't think it's too much to ask for a basic level of consistency in the games we play.

I've been playing since the original pikmin and I completely get where the hard-core fans are coming from. I get it, it does take away from the raw wilderness survival of the first. It was much more cold ruthless and dire, which did have a drive of survival in it. The surrealness does have an appeal exploring a supposed post apocalypse home seeing things from their perspective. Simple adjustments need to be made optional. Changing the day, the use of Oatchi, target lock on, perhaps even a + mode for smarter tougher versions of enemies. Although 4 is a reboot, it could always be explained simply as another pikmin timeline allowing the events of post 3 to be re explored. It's not perfect but I'm happy to see the community growing and getting Nintendo' s attention. Here's to hoping Pikmin 4 hits the 4 mil mark.

I’ve played all 4 games, probably started around 2005, and I loved Pikmin 4. I really think people should appreciate a piece of art for what it is and don’t come in with petty expectations. If you liked Pikmin 1 or 2 better, then by all means: play that game! No reason to dump on Pikmin 4.

Anyway, these WW sales numbers were sad to see, because Japan sales had been looking amazing on the weekly Famitsu charts. Pikmin 4 basically bombed outside of Japan. Remember, a typical title sells 20 % inside Japan, and 80 % outside. So 50 %/50 % for such a cute, universally accessible game is terrible. I hope that Switch long tail software sales will still be doing well into 2024/2025, despite a new console, so that the game can reach well over 3 million lifetime sales. I really want to see Pikmin 5 in under 5 years.