Let's go Pikmin!

Wonder how high it can go? Games have made it to 1 mil with lower openings, but that's probably a stretch this late in the Switch lifespan. Regardless it should easily set a series record.

Square Enix decided to put the game on a console with less than 12% of the Switch's sales.  If Square didn't always need their mainline Final Fantasy games to be the best graphical experiences possible, they could have easily made a mainline Final Fantasy over the last 7 years on the Switch that would have debuted with over a million physical sales in Japan.

I knew people were sleeping on Pikmin 4 a bit. The 171k debut for a Deluxe port pointed towards big things for the next mainline entry on Switch.

Good graphics with each new mainline entry is part of the identity of Final Fantasy titles. Good graphics and Switch just isn't possible. Besides they got money, help and marketing from Sony. It isn't that bad of a deal for Square. Also like most publishers they rather sell well worldwide than in one market, even if that's the home market.

for reference, this is what i found for the two original pikmin games on GC. obviously there's a massive install base difference but, it's nice to see how far the series has come.

I'll take that bet! I think Pikmin 4 will definitely hit over 1 million in Japan, especially with digital.

True, it would have sold like gangbuster worldwide on the Switch as well, I was just illustrating Japan for this discussion.  It didn't hurt Capcom to put a mainline Monster Hunter World on PS4/Xbox One and put a mainline Monster Hunter Rise on the Switch that later got ported to PS4/Xbox.  Both games sold fantastic and were an excellent return on investment.  If I'm running Square Enix I would have had Final Fantasy XVI released on the Switch 2-3 years ago, and than released Final Fantasy XVII as the the Playstation 5 exclusive.  You could have always ported the Switch game to Playstation for more sales as well.

I know this site is Nintendo biased regardless of the game, but some comments are boderline pathetic.
I know most of you must be above 30, please be more mature.

This... is an excellent debut for Pikmin. Far more than any of the previous did. Of course, this is the first mainline entry that hits an actual successful and very popular console. But it's good to see that. Pikmin is very charming and deserves, quite akin to Metroid Dread, all the sales that are coming to it.

Good move on Nintendo to release 4 on Switch.