Yep, that isn’t a typo. Nintendo’s first major foray into smartphone game development seems to have paid off spectacularly with Super Mario Run.
In an official press release from Nintendo released in Japan – translation courtesy of Destructoid – the Japanese publisher has officially announced their mascot’s mobile outing has been downloaded over 40 million times in just its first four days. It is also the number one game downloaded in 140 of the 150 markets it opened in. Bear in mind these numbers are just from the game’s release on the iOS App Store, as the game will not be launching on the Android marketplace until 2017.
Overall this is great news for Nintendo, but the numbers are a tad misleading. While 40 million downloads in four days is a fantastic amount of coverage, there are no concrete numbers on how much revenue the game has actually generated for the company. Super Mario Run has a small amount of its content available for free before a considerable pay wall of ten dollars is introduced, so simply downloading and trying the game isn’t exactly a financial gamble. Even its number one position is distinctly in the Free Games category, which has a distinctly different model and clientele in mind.
In fact, even major news outlets are having trouble discerning the game’s financial success. There have been optimistic projections such as the one from SuperData which had Super Mario Run earning $60 million within its first month to Venture Beat estimating the game yielded about $5 million in the US market within its first day. This should be cleared up at Nintendo’s next official shareholders meeting. But for now, 40 million downloads is still an impressive number for the company’s first serious dive into mobile game development.
