Can Super Mario Run be considered a success for Nintendo? That’s the burning question that no one outlet can seem to agree upon. From criticisms of the mobile game’s requirement that players be constantly connected to the internet in order to play to concerns that its hefty (for mobile) $9.99 price tag would turn potential customers away, Mario’s first major outing on the platform has weathered multiple storms on its way to release.
That question may have been somewhat answered today, however, as information provided to The Wall Street Journal by research firm Newzoo (via VG247), reveals that Super Mario Run has been downloaded a whopping 90 million times since launching on iOS last month, a figure one would usually associate with success.
Despite that impressive figure, though, the data also reveals that less than 3% of those that downloaded the title actually paid out the $10 asking price, having instead stuck to the small selection of free content or, quite simply, just deleted the app entirely. The retention rate may seem measly, but that 3% translates to around $30 million in gross revenue for Nintendo. Not too shabby, even if the figure is a rather meaningless one without knowledge of how much the game took to make.
Super Mario Run certainly isn’t out for the count just yet, then, but will it continue to generate respectable sales going forward? It’s too soon to tell, but it’s important to remember that it’s yet to launch on Android devices. The jump from iOS could well see sales of the title explode when it does.
