'Super Mario Run' Hits 200 Million Downloads; Profits Still Unacceptable, Says Sony
Nintendo has been one of the cornerstones in the gaming industry, and it is not shy showing how high their standards can get when it comes to their products – including the ones that are apparently performing remarkably well.
According to the gaming giant's latest Earnings Report, "Super Mario Run" has already been downloaded 200 million times, with about 90 percent of the downloads coming outside of Japan. The game was first released on iOS in December of 2016, followed by the Android version in March of this year.
Gamespot noted that the totals increased from 150 million just a few months ago. Despite the impressive numbers, Nintendo revealed that they are not satisfied with the game's performance, saying they "have not yet reached an acceptable profit point" for the title. The game is free to download, however, players need to pay $9.99 if they want to enjoy all of the game's courses in full.
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In a briefing back in July, Nintendo said that less than 10 percent of gamers who downloaded the title shelled out money to purchase all of the courses. Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima also compared the game to "Fire Emblem Heroes," which brought in more money.
"The number of downloads of Fire Emblem Heroes is less than a tenth of the number for Super Mario Run, but the total figure that consumers have spent on this title is more than on Super Mario Run," Kimishima explained.
On a positive note, The Verge reported that "Super Mario Run" was able to help "Super Mario Odyssey" in terms of creating awareness for the latter. Nintendo said that the game, which appears on the Switch console, has sold two million copies in just three days since its launching.
The same thing also happened with Niantic's hit mobile game "Pokemon GO," which buoyed the sales performance of its Pokemon counterparts on the Nintendo 3DS handheld console, the report added.
