Pikmin were never expected to have Mario or Zelda like sales for 2 reasons.
1. Mario and Zelda had over 15 years of a growing fanbase to work with.
2. Pikmin was established on Nintendo's lowest selling home console ever.
If you look at the ratio of install base to software sales, you'll see Pimin didn't do to bad when compared to Zelda.
NES (61 million | Legend of Zelda (6.5 million ) = 10.6%
SNES (49 million) | Link to the Past (4.6 million) = 9.4%
N64 (32 million) | Ocarina of Time (7.6 million) = 23%
N64 (32 million) | Majora's Mask (3.4 million) = 10.6%
GC (21 million) | Wind Waker (4.6 million) = 21.9%
GC (21 million) | Twlilight Princess (1.6 million) = 7.6%
Wii (74 million) | Twilight Princess (5.7 million) = 7.7%
GC (21 million) | Pikmin (1.6 million) = 7.6%
The rEVOLution is not being televised
