To be fair I don't think they are trying to make Pixel world-wide popular. If they did, they would sell it to more places (can't buy it here in Slovenia).
It's not about them trying, they don't have the competence that it takes to sell phones worldwide. It takes years to build relationships with the carriers -- where most phones are sold.
If we consider parent's home country a "peripheral market", then it took iPhone months to reach it.
Don't forget that Nexus One launched almost 10 year ago. There was plenty of time to build the supply chain.