Pikmin 4's Japanese launch sales beat all 3 previous Pikmin games combined

Earlier today, we shared the weekly sales data for Japan. As expected, Pikmin 4 came in at the top of the charts for its debut. What wasn’t expected was just how big of a debut the game saw.

In its opening week in Japan, Pikmin 4 managed to sell 401,853 copies. Now keep in mind this figure only pertains to physical sales, as Nintendo doesn’t reveal digital sales data. That’s an incredibly impressive debut for what is largely considered to be a niche franchise for Nintendo, and things get even more impressive when you compare this figure to previous entries.

Believe it or not, Pikmin 4’s 400k+ launch sales are good enough to best the launch week sales of every mainline Pikmin game before it. The original Pikmin sold 101,299 in its first week, Pikmin 2 sold 161,930 and Pikmin 3 sold 92,720. When Pikmin 3 Deluxe landed on Switch, that brought about a series’-best debut of 171,349 units moved in the first week, but that still pales in comparison to what Pikmin 4 pulled off. (h/t VGC)

Nintendo has pushed Pikmin 4 harder than any other Pikmin game to date, and it looks like that strategy has paid off in Japan. We don’t have hard data for sales in other regions, but chart-topping weekly reports in areas like the UK point to success around the world. It seems like Nintendo might have another hit on their hands!