Nirvana's debut album picked up a bunch of fans just on it's own before Kurt's death, and I know that for sure because I see it in a lot of record stores in Seattle. Posters about the album, posters about how much it crafted the grunge genre, etc. I mean, even listening to the album now is a pretty good standard to judge the band.
Be that as it may, Nevermind probably picked up more commercial success than Bleach did. However, I personally find Bleach to be one of the best out of the three albums they released. And one of the most accessible if you're wondering what kind of influence they had on other grunge acts.