Super Mario Run continued building on its 200 million global downloads recorded in October, Nintendo revealed as part of its consolidated financial report for the final quarter of the calendar year 2017, i.e. the third quarter of its current fiscal year. The first official Mario mobile game in the history of the company still boasts 20 million monthly active players, the firm said, without providing a breakdown of that figure by platform. Super Mario Run’s peak happened in October when the game is understood to have reached approximately 21 million players, according to the data provided by Nintendo. The company once again avoided disclosing the revenue generated by the title over any period and didn’t attach any other performance metrics to the project in its report.
Last quarter, Nintendo said Super Mario Run didn’t lead to “acceptable profit” despite its tens of millions of downloads but failed to elaborate on the matter. The game is understood to have cost millions of dollars to make, whereas its marketing budget was likely much higher. Super Mario Run remains Nintendo’s only premium mobile game to date, offering several free levels and an in-app purchase that unlocks the rest of the content for a one-time fee. That price was $10 at launch but was permanently slashed in half in late September, though Nintendo didn’t reveal whether the discount led to a significant boost in sales. The relative lack of success of Super Mario Run compared to the company’s other titles like Fire Emblem Heroes and Pokemon GO (independently developed by Niantic) is expected to lead to more free-to-play Android games from Nintendo going forward, whereas the firm is unlikely to greenlight another premium experiment in the near future.
As part of the same financial report, Nintendo announced Mario Kart Tour for Android and iOS devices that’s set to be released during the company’s next fiscal year ending March 2019. The Kyoto, Japan-based entertainment giant also vowed to continue delivering more Fire Emblem Heroes content and said Super Mario Run is adding value to its portfolio by not just making money but “expanding the reach” of the Mario franchise as a whole, which was part of its motivation to enter the mobile gaming segment in the first place.
