Highlights
- Pikmin 4 has achieved tremendous success, selling more units in its first week than its predecessors combined, making it a great entry point for new gamers.
- Nintendo's aggressive marketing campaign in Japan, including bringing previous Pikmin games to the Switch and advertising in non-gaming places, contributed to the game's success.
- Shigeru Miyamoto identified the high difficulty curve of previous Pikmin games as a factor in their poor sales, but the new entry aims to convey gameplay as "interesting" instead of "difficult." Pikmin 4 is now one of the highest-rated games on the Switch.
Pikmin 4 has become a huge hit since its launch, selling more units in the first week than its three predecessors did together during their debuts. When compared to the previous title, Pikmin 4 changed a lot, offering character customization, new Pikmin to collect, fewer restrictions, and more in-depth night exploration, for instance. This makes it an excellent entry point for gamers who don’t know the franchise very well.
Part of why Pikmin 4 was so successful was due to Nintendo’s aggressive marketing campaign in Japan. Not only did Nintendo bring Pikmin 1 and 2 to Switch before the launch to build up hype, but also advertised the game essentially everywhere, including non-gaming-related places such as convenience stores. Also, some hardcore fans even used their own money to pay for Pikmin 4 ads over Times Square, which could have increased the general awareness about the game, although it’s difficult to say for sure.
The result of these efforts is that Pikmin 4 sold incredibly well in Japan. According to the Japanese media outlet Famitsu (via VGC), Pikmin 4 managed to sell 401,853 units in its first week, greatly surpassing the three previous games in the franchise, which sold 101,299, 161,930, and 92,720 copies, respectively. It’s essential to note, though, that these numbers represent only physical sales of the game, meaning that the final difference would probably be even higher, as online purchases are more common today than in 2013 when Pikmin 3 was released.
Last week, Shigeru Miyamoto discussed why previous Pikmin games sold poorly. According to him, the game’s high difficulty curve may have been the main reason for the previous trilogy being a niche. The little Pikmin die very easily, and keeping them alive is a core aspect of the franchise, Miyamoto defended, so this degree of frustration may have stifled sales before. Fortunately, it seems that it’s not happening this time, as Nintendo is trying to convey these aspects of gameplay as “interesting” instead of “difficult” with the new entry.
Right now, Pikmin 4 is also one of the highest-rated games available on Switch. It has an 88 critic score on Metacritic and a 9.3 player score at the time of this report. This makes it one of the best Switch games of the year, behind The Legend ofZelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which was a unanimous success and obtained a critic score of 96, marking an excellent year for Nintendo.
Pikmin 4 is available now on Nintendo Switch.
Source: VGC
