Super Mario Run jumps over Pokemon Go’s day-one downloads record

Super Mario Run turned out to be just as much of a mobile gaming juggernaut as we all expected it to be.

Nintendo’s first foray into mobile gaming has already proven to be a huge success, even if revenue projects are down.

For a game that offers a free-to-play component — or demo — next to a full-priced $9.99USD/$14.99AUD version, it’s arguably one of the most value-packed games you can get on your iOS device.

The critics are almost universal in praise for the title, which sees Mario appear on a smartphone and tablet devices for the first time.

Some analysts predicted first-month downloads of close to 100 million, with around one third of that being full-priced sales.

According to Apptopia, Super Mario Run accumulated 2.85 million downloads on its first day, which is, rather surprisingly, almost two million more than Pokemon Go‘s launch-day tally of 900,000.

Granted, Pokemon Go saw a staggered international release, but it came to both iOS and Android at the same time. Android users have to wait until 2017 for Super Mario Run.

Niantic’s mobile beast ended up getting progressively more popular before seeing a steep decline in player numbers.

Interestingly, Nintendo’s share price fell after launch, dropping 4.2% in Tokyo, while DeNA Co., the studio behind Super Mario Run‘s development, saw a stock fall of 6.8%.

Reports claim the game has generated $5 million from 5 million downloads in total, meaning only one in ten players are paying for the full experience.

Before launch, Nintendo reportedly believed that one-third — or seven million — of the predicted 20 million downloads of Super Mario Run would be paying customers in the first month.

However, at a current rate of only one in ten, that figure could be as low as two million sales from the first 20 million downloads, which would be well below expectations.

Nonetheless, people are buying the game, and while it may yet prove to be a good testing ground for Nintendo’s mobile business strategy, there’s no doubt about it: Super Mario Run is a winner.