Super Mario Run Hits 200 Million Downloads, Nintendo still Displeased by Profits

Super Mario Run has now passed 200 million downloads worldwide. While 200 million seems like a huge number, Nintendo is still unhappy with the financial results yet. They’ve said the game hasn’t made the kind of money they had hoped, but that they still prefer the Super Mario Run model of mobile games (pay for full game) as opposed to traditional mobile efforts (free with microtransactions).

Despite their financial marks, Nintendo has said the game helped the company learn a lot about mobile game development. They intend to use this knowledge in future projects. This has us wondering how this new experience will affect the new Animal Crossing Pocket Camp that was recently announced.

Additionally, Nintendo stated that out of the 20 million downloads, only about 10% of it was from their home country Japan. Their latest update 3.0, which came out in December, added a new mode, stages, and even a new character. This update was part of Nintendo’s plan to make Super Mario Run the “definitive Mario application for smart devices.”

While it sounds like marketing talk, they’ve stated that the September update has significantly helped bring players back into the game.

“We also ran campaigns to foster more interest, including a special price offer for a limited period, to commemorate the release of the new version,” Nintendo said. “Although we have not yet reached an acceptable profit point, we have learned a lot in terms of game development and deployment that we want to take advantage of moving forward.”

Super Mario Run has a “free to start” feature, where the game lets you play a few levels before asking you to pay $10 to unlock the rest. $10 may seem steep for a mobile game, but beyond the paywall, there’s no further need to spend additional money and Nintendo occasionally updates, as seen in the September update.

Super Mario Run is available on iOS and Android phones.