New data suggests Super Mario Run isn’t raking it in for Nintendo as fast as many folks probably assumed.

According to information provided to The Wall Street Journal by market research firm Newzoo, the iOS game has been downloaded 90 million times. While that is a large number, it appears only 3% are paying to unlock the full game.

The data provided states the game has earned $30 million in gross revenue since it was released on December 15. If the 90 million folks who downloaded the game had forked over $9.99/£9.99 to purchase it, revenue would be somewhere in the ballpark of $900 million – if our math is correct.

Granted, it was obvious from the start not everyone would pay that much for a mobile game, despite having Mario attached to it. Surely Nintendo knew this as well, but the game has only been available – and on iOS only – for 19 days, so $30M is nothing to sneeze at we reckon, even if analysts are lowering sales expectations for the game.

If we are correct, Super Mario Run has made $1,578,947 per day since its release and again, it’s not even available for Android yet. This is a huge factor to consider.

Gartner data published by 9to5Mac in August 2016 showed that in Q2 2016 alone, Android held a 86.2% worldwide market share compared to 12.9% for iOS. And surely there are millions of Android users out there aching to try the game out.

Granted, not all Android users will download the free version, which only offers a few stages – nor will those that do fork over $10 for the full product. The point here, is that Super Mario Run shouldn’t be considered a dud just yet, despite having to compete with numerous free-to-play titles with mircrotransactions such as Pokemon GO or the ever popular Candy Crush brand.

We’ll just have to see how it pans out, and if it indeed falls off the edge of the earth, hopefully Nintendo will reassess matters before releasing upcoming mobile titles in the Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing franchises.

Posted: Jan 03, 2017 11:56 pm
Related Forum: Mobile Devices

Source: https://www.vg247.com/2017/01/03/super-mario-run-has-been-downloaded-90-million-times-but-only-3-million-have-bought-it/