Super Mario Run, a mobile game that looked to repeat the success of Mario’s lineage by bringing the classic feel of all of the hero’s previous games to a mobile arena, recently reported just how many times that platformer has been downloaded. Nintendo confirmed that the game has now been downloaded over 150 million times just seven months after its release, but the amount of money that it’s making doesn’t reflect the lofty number.
According to Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima as reported by Pocketgamer.biz, the company’s leader said in a Q&A session that many players still weren’t opting to purchase the entire game with under 10 percent of those who downloaded it actually buying the full game. Instead, players would download the game and play through the trial levels that are free, but they didn’t care much for purchasing the full game with all levels included. The full game would set players back $9.99, a price that’s not too high for a game but is a bit unattractive when you consider that it’s a mobile game.
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Kimishima had one possible explanation for why the game might not have been making as much money despite its downloads.
“This may be due to the price or the payment methods, so in the future we will consider not only a single set price, but other methods that incorporate a wider variety of elements to allow as many consumers as possible to play,” the Kimishima said.
Kimishima also mentioned that the number of people buying the full game seems to be increasing as well, but that makes sense that the low number would gradually improve as more players download. Regarding another Nintendo mobile game, he said that Fire Emblem Heroes has been downloaded far fewer times than Super Mario Run. That didn’t stop the Fire Emblem mobile game from bringing in more money than Mario’s game though with it’s free-to-play with in-app purchases model.
Nintendo also has an upcoming Animal Crossing where the company hopes to incorporate the information they’ve gained from the Fire Emblem and Super Mario games into the model.
[via PocketGamer.biz.]
