Pikmin 3 Might Be Cutting Into Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Sales

Last week, Nintendo released Mario & Luigi: Dream Team in Japan, and the game sold 99,972 copies in its first week. Sales tracker Media Create report that this represented a low sell-through of 25.49%.

For some perspective, the previous game, Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, sold 192,945 copies in its first week, and sold through 86.75% of its shipment.

Going by the above figures, Nintendo shipped 222,414 copies of Bowser’s Inside Story and a whopping 392,200 copies of Dream Team. Yet, the older game sold more, despite a smaller shipment.

Media-Create say that the difference is that Bowser’s Inside Story had a wide audience buying the game, from grade school students to people in their 30s, which indicates that a number of casual players picked it up. So, why didn’t Dream Team do as well?

The answer to that may lie in another Nintendo game, which is Pikmin 3. Media Create point out that Pikmin 3 was released the week before Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, and was a highly anticipated Nintendo game, which might have cut into the word of mouth of the latter game. Perhaps we’ll see Dream Team sales pick up as the effect of Pikmin 3 wears off in the weeks to come.