Analysis: Nintendo made billions of dollars from mobile games

Nintendo has so far earned a billion dollars from mobile games, SensorTower has calculated. This includes income from Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store. The game that brought in the most is Fire Emblem Heroes.

Nearly two-thirds of the money will come from Fire Emblem Heroes, SensorTower claims. The company keeps statistics on downloads and in-app purchases by combining data it receives from partners with signals such as top lists in the App Store and Play Store.

The Mario games that Nintendo has released so far, Super Mario Run and Mario Kart Tour, have yielded much less; 76 and 86 million dollars respectively, estimates SensorTower. Nintendo released its first mobile game at the end of 2016 with Super Mario Run. It makes money with in-app purchases. With Mario Run this is a one-time license of ten euros, with Mario Kart Tour that is a subscription of five euros per month.