Pikmin has never been one of Nintendo's major franchises in terms of units sold, but it's nice to know that the most recent entry – Pikmin 3 Deluxe – has found some degree of commercial success in Japan.
Total physical sales of the game – which is an update of the Wii U original – in Nintendo's homeland now stand at 513,225 copies, which means the Switch title has out-sold the original GameCube Pikmin, which achieved 502,996 sales during its entire lifespan but was later re-issued on the Wii.
By way of contrast, the original Wii U version of Pikmin 3 only managed to shift 232,313 units in Japan.
Here's how each Pikmin title has performed in terms of physical sales in Japan:
1. [NSW] Pikmin 3 Deluxe – 513,225
2. [NGC] Pikmin – 502,996
3. [NGC] Pikmin 2 – 483,027
4. [WII] New Play Control! Pikmin 2 – 237,064
5. [WIU] Pikmin 3 – 232,313
6. [WII] New Play Control! Pikmin – 170,866
7. [3DS] Hey! Pikmin – 157,007
[source nintendoeverything.com]
Comments 35
Seems to be a pretty common trend for Switch games. It's my least favourite game in the series admittedly so I didn't double dip with the Switch version myself but good to see the series doing pretty well. Hopefully we'll get a fourth game one day.
Good. Pikmin deserves its time in the sun. Let's hope it sold even better in the West so they can finally make a new one. Ports of 1 & 2 would be good but the Switch already has so many ports. Come on Pikmin 4!
Thats good. I love that game and i think it should be more noticed.
Every franchise has the potential to be the best selling game of that series on the Switch.
Hey! Pikmin's at the bottom which is no surprise to me. Nintendo put too many 2D platformers on the 3DS so I don't know what they were thinking by having an RTS become one. See also, Chibi-Robo Ziplash
Hey now what els would be the best selling pikmin game ever, pikmin 4.
Now just release Pikmin 1 & 2 on the Switch.
@Dethmunk,
The naysayers only look at it from their own point of view, and as they have already played the game on the Wii U they see little value to it, they totally ignore the millions of Switch owners that never owned a Wii U, so therefore this will be a brand new game for them.
I just went back to this last night and beat it for the first time. That last level is frustrating but now I'm determined to get the good ending on hard mode.
@tanaka2687 Honestly, I think it flopped outside Japan. I might be wrong but it seemed to drop out of the charts very quickly in America and Europe.
Maybe it's never been a big franchise outside Japan though.
GIVE US PIKMIN 4 YOU COWARDS
Yeah, Pikmin 1 & 2 in HD on Switch would be nice
Great to see, it felt like it came and went very quickly without much fanfare.
I gave the eShop demo a try and ended up getting the full game. I am absolutely obsessed with it now, as are my kids. Really happy to see its success in Japan; I just hope it has seen as much of a sales bump in other countries.
So many good news for Nintendo today I love it! I didnt buy this one cuz I have the WiiU version. Waiting for pikmin 4
I played this game and was blown away by the beauty it presents. Top-notch!
The weather, day & night presentation down to the cute Pikmin's, i think i made a good purchase decision.
We loved it on Wii U and double dipped on Switch, my son wanted it for Christmas
That's physical only.
With digital it's probably near 700k.
Pikmin 3 DX should be at 1.5+ million retail + digital copies sold by now globally.
@Steel76 Theres no real evidence that they delay sequels though as I get they wouldnt want to overload the market with pikmin 4 with 6 months of it but no actual evidence working on P4.
These enchanced re releases take very little time and resources to make compared to a brand new game (and for many folks this is a brand new game to them, some folks never saw a wii u in the wild nevermind played a niche game on it). If you played on wii u and dont fancy it again makes sense but I dont think it's one or the other.
If anything it might lead to pikmin 4 by showing there is an audience out there for it and money to be made. The declining sales of the series each release and poor wii u/3ds sales could easily make them walk away from it entirely and release I dunno Mario swimming or Pokemon maths.
I hope it keeps selling and we get some DLC or Pikmin 4 (finally).
I wonder if all those ports from old gen are meant to test the market for a sequel. They should port F-Zero GX and make a {insert swear word} sequel already.
So they can finally get on with Pikmin 4 now perhaps.
I had never played a Pikmin game before playing the demo just before Christmas..loved it so much I put it on my Christmas list.Alas,I never received it.Will definitely buy the full game soon.
Pikmin 3 is short, but it’s so good. Glad to see it’s getting the love it deserves. Is Pikmin 4 ready yet Nintendo??
@Dethmunk it’s not abaout being available. It’s the price. Seeing new play control wii versions in this list reminded me. Those games were 29.99. These cheap wiiu ports aren’t 29.99 but 59.99, same price as new Switch games which took years to make.
People do moan about that. I know I do.
Someone somewhere has this bulborb sitting on their desk
@Wazeddie22 That’s a shame. I hope you get it soon!
Fingers crossed that Nintendo puts out an update for Pikmin 3 that brings Pikmin 1 and 2 as downloads with the game (even for an extra $10 as DLC I'd buy that). And if they updated those old graphics that'd be aMAZing.
Also waiting for Pikmin 4....
If Nintendo sticks with this franchise then one day it'll have a breakout hit where it can sell 2 million and higher consistently
That’s fantastic! These sales may have saved the franchise from being shelved. Glad Nintendo stuck by their product. I haven’t picked it up yet but I will sometime this year.
@Steel76 They want to earn some money back from the failure the Wi U was.
Worst Nintendo Switch game.
Thank god.I only hope that spurs them on to get 4 out.
I still think it would have sold at least twice as much if they didn't call it "3". Pikmin desperately needs newcomers but that name scares them off. Also, why would you call attention to the fact that the game is a sequel if you never bother giving access to the old games on the same system?
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