Mario Kart Tour, Nintendo’s long-awaited Mario Kart game for iOS, enjoyed the second-biggest mobile game launch month in history. (And Nintendo’s biggest.) Across both Android and iOS, the game racked up 123.9 million unique downloads in its first four weeks.
That’s more than 5x the downloads that Super Mario Run‘s 21.8 million downloads.
The game to have enjoyed the best ever first month on mobile remains Pokémon GO. The smash hit augmented reality game hoovered up 163 million downloads in its first 30 days. That’s even more impressive since Pokémon GO was not available in every country on launch. It was initially limited to just the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. Mario Kart Tour, on the other hand, had a global launch.
Nintendo’s approach to mobile money
While its download figures are impressive, however, the revenue generated during that time could potentially disappoint Nintendo. The game pulled in $37.4 million during its first month. While not bad by any means, that’s considerably less than the $67.6 million that was grossed by Nintendo’s Fire Emblem Heroes in its first month. On average, users spent $0.26 per user.
Nintendo initially employed a premium strategy for its mobile games. Super Mario Run offered users a free demo, but then opted for a $9.99 single download that unlocked the whole game. Nintendo changed its strategy after declaring the strategy had not reached “an acceptable profit point.”
Compared to Super Mario Run, the freemium Mario Kart Tour is far more of a money grubber. A Gold Pass subscription to the game costs $4.99 per month — the same as Apple Arcade’s 100+ games — and still doesn’t unlock everything. Shell out for everything and you’ll be spending the same (or more) than you would for a console version of Mario Kart.
Mario Kart Tour: Worth it or not?
Personally, I was a bit disappointed by Mario Kart Tour, whose gameplay is lacking. To its credit, Nintendo continues to keep the game’s momentum going with updates. So far, it has offered both New York and Tokyo courses. This month it has a Halloween update, adding new tracks and players including the beloved Luigi.
Have you played Mario Kart Tour so far? What did you think of it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Sensor Tower
