Nintendo had a solid performance in mobile revenue last year with about $348 million during the calendar year of 2018, about a 15 percent increase from 2017, according to the latest estimates from Sensory Tower.
During the fourth quarter of 2018, Nintendo’s mobile revenue reached a new record of close to $117 million in worldwide player spending across Google Play and the App Store. This was a whopping 47 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2017, and a lot of it was thanks to its latest release Dragalia Lost which brought in about $54.2 million in the fourth quarter.
As for Fire Emblem Heroes in 2018, it accounted approximately 66 percent of Nintendo’s mobile revenue. Since its launch in February 2017, the smartphone strategy game has grossed $487 million.
Dragalia Lost released at the end of Q2 2018 and it generated close to 17 percent of Nintendo’s mobile revenue of the year with an estimate of about $58.4 million worldwide. Dragalia Lost has surpassed $60 million, with 66 percent of that coming from Japanese players. This total comes from its availability in five territories, which is much less than Fire Emblem’s 40.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp celebrated its first anniversary in November 2018 and it closed the year with an estimate of $48.6 million in player spending. The game saw a downward trend in its anniversary month with about $4.5 million in gross revenue compared to the estimate of about $8.1 million in November 2017, about a 44 percent decrease.
Lastly, Super Mario Run saw a little over 10 million from its players last year, much less than the $31 million it generated in 2017.
In 2019 we can expect to see a shift in Nintendo’s focus with some upcoming releases including Mario Kart Tour, which is expected to launch by the end of March with in-app purchases and microtransactions.
Fire Emblem Heroes, Dragalia Lost, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, and Super Mario Run are available on iOS and Android.
