Fire Emblem Heroes is Nintendo’s first billion dollar mobile game

 

Fire Emblem Heroes has just hit $1bn in global lifetime player spend, says Sensor Tower. 

The game was released in February 2017 and accounts for 54.5% of Nintendo’s total revenue from mobile games to date, according to the data firm. 

Mario Kart Tour is second top earner for Nintendo, having picked up $282m in lifetime revenue since it launched in September 2019. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is a close third with $281.6m lifetime revenues since its launch in November 2017. 

Lifetime downloads for Nintendo’s mobile games paint a different picture. Sensor Tower says Super Mario Run is way out in front here, with 310.7m to date, accounting for 47% of all Nintendo mobile game downloads. Mario Kart Tour is second on downloads with 227.2m, with Animal Crossing in third with 65.4m and Fire Emblem Heroes on 17.8m

Sensor Tower also provided some figures for Q1 2022, which shows how reliant Fire Emblem Heroes is on existing, engaged spenders. It only attracted 121,000 new downloads in Q1 2022, yet generated over $28m in global player spend – 50.7% of total revenue for Nintendo’s mobile portfolio. 

The market split shows Japan as Fire Emblem Heroes’ most lucrative market, accounting for 54% of lifetime player spend, a total of $540.6m. The US is the second biggest market for the game with 32.4% of revenue, with Canada a distant third with 3.2%.

Japan is also top for Fire Emblem Heroes downloads with 8.4m, 47% of the total to date. The US accounts for 26% and France is third with a 3.2% cut of lifetime downloads.

Sensor Tower also provided the store split on Fire Emblem Heroes’ revenue to date, stating that Google Play has drawn $583.7m (58.3%) versus the App Store’s $417.3m (41.7%). 

As we revealed last month, Nintendo’s mobile games have generated over $1.8bn in worldwide player spend to date, yet it seems the Japanese giant has lost interest in mobile.

While it continues to support Fire Emblem Heroes, Mario Kart Tour, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Super Mario Run, it has not released a new mobile game for three years, and recently closed Dr. Mario World and Dragalia Lost. 

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