Will Pikmin 3 sell over 500k as the first game did?

Pikmin 3 was released in Japan last week and new data from Media Create has shown it has sold a respectable number of copies.

The folks at Siliconera have put together a little comparison chart showing how the third game in the series sold in relation to its two predecessors.

As we know, Pikmin 3 sold 92,720 copies in its first week of release, which is more than Pikmin managed in 2001. The full chart is below, with the sell-through percentages in the parentheses:

Pikmin – First week: 90,000 (54.9%)
Pikmin 2 – First week: 160,000 (48.4%)
Pikmin 3 – First week: 92,720 (48.45%)

Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube788k
Watch on YouTube

As you can see Pikmin 2 sold much more than Pikmin and Pikmin 3 in its first week, although this isn't really the best comparison because of the relative install bases. Pikmin was released just over a month into the GameCube's life and naturally sold less than Pikmin 2, which emerged in 2004. In fact the original game ended up selling 549,000 copies overall, which is more than the 484,000 Pikmin 2 managed.

With Pikmin 3 coming out at the beginning of the Wii U's life cycle these figures seem about right - there's no way it could have realistically topped the sales of Pikmin 2 as the install base is much lower.

What's your take on these figures? Let us know in the comment section below.

[source siliconera.com]