When Nintendo first announced they were going into the mobile field, it was unclear how successful they would be. On one hand, having some of the recognizable characters in video games is a big boon to them for sure. But, how that translates to games, especially mobile games, was certainly going to vary. Pokemon GO started things off well, but that was made by Niantic, not Nintendo. Super Mario Run either did great or terrible depending on who you talked to. And then, there’s Fire Emblem Heroes.
Arguably the most complete game at launch among the mobile titles, Fire Emblem Heroes surprised everyone with just how good it was, and now, we’ve got numbers to show how well it’s doing. The stats come from Deconstructor of Fun, who has noted that Fire Emblem Heroes has over 11 million downloads, and has made about $115 million dollars since its launch in February.
While that may not seem like a lot in context, that’s actually very staggering. Why? Because Heroes was free to download, unlike Super Mario Run. And though there’s plenty to buy in theory, the main thing people buy are Orbs to summon more characters. Which is something Nintendo Entertainment Podcast’s Tellius Tyler talked about on our latest episode. Point is, this is very good, and very telling of how popular the Fire Emblem franchise is.
