A couple of years back Nintendo decided to go and expand its reach in terms of where to put its gaming IPs. They decided to go and make a variety of gaming titles for the mobile gaming market via Android and iPhone and the results were…mixed. For example, Pokemon Go (which technically isn’t associated with Nintendo) was a global phenomenon and Fire Emblem Heroes (which IS associated with Nintendo) has done exceedingly well too. But, several other titles it’s made like Super Mario Run, Pokemon Masters, Dr. Mario World and others have been…middling in success. But then, there is Mario Kart Tour.
When Mario Kart Tour came out it was a bit reviled by gamers because of its “overly simplistic” gameplay in the eyes of some but it turned out an impressive amount of downloads, getting over 100 million in just 11 days of release back in 2019. And now, 18 months later, Sensor Tower is reporting that it’s not only crossed 200 million in downloads, but crossed $200 million revenue.
In fact, from April 2020 to March 2021, Mario Kart Tour was Nintendo’s second-highest-grossing mobile game outside of Fire Emblem Heroes. Heroes has gotten a LOT more revenue, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a major milestone, especially on the download side of things.
Nintendo is working on making more mobile titles, including a new Pikmin app from the creators of Pokemon GO.
