Just when it seemed like Nintendo had given up on mobile, it shadowdropped Fire Emblem Shadows at the end of September 2025.
It was the first new Nintendo game on mobile since Pikmin Bloom, a gamified walking app, was released with codeveloper Niantic in October 2021.
As we’ve reported before, Fire Emblem Shadows has got off to a slow start – new data sourced from Sensor Tower by The Game Business suggests that it has been downloaded around 800k times since launch on September 25, and has made about $200k in revenue to date.
In total, again according to Sensor Tower, Nintendo’s mobile portfolio has generated 816m downloads and $2.27bn in revenue since Super Mario Run launched in September 2016.
We discussed Fire Emblem Shadows and Nintendo’s mobile strategy in general on the latest edition of The Game Business Show, which you can watch here:
Sensor Tower data sourced by The Game Business suggests that the US is the biggest market for Nintendo mobile game downloads, representing over 20% of all installs, with Japan second with 8% of the total.
But Japan represents nearly 46% of all money generated by Nintendo’s mobile titles (the US is third by revenue with 34% of the total).
Nintendo’s top mobile games
Data from Sensor Tower, sourced by The Game Business
1. Fire Emblem Heroes
Released: February 2017
Downloads: 19m
Revenue: $1.193bn
Status: Active
2. Mario Kart Tour
Released: September 2019
Downloads: 290.7m
Revenue: $365.6m
Status: Active, but no major updates
3. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
Released: October 2017
Downloads: 75.5m
Revenue: $349.8m
Status: Shifted to premium, no longer updated
4. Dragalia Lost
Released: September 2018
Downloads: 4.3m
Revenue: $167.1m
Status: Discontinued
5. Super Mario Run
Released: September 2016
Downloads: 384.4m
Revenue: $96.6m
Status: Active
6. Pikmin Bloom
Released: October 2021
Downloads: 7.5m
Revenue: $84.8m
Status: Active
7. Dr. Mario World
Released: July 2019
Downloads: 13.4m
Revenue: $13.8m
Status: Discontinued
8. Miitomo
Released: March 2016
Downloads: 20.8m
Revenue: $3.7m
Status: Discontinued
9. Fire Emblem Shadows
Released: September 2025
Downloads: 800k
Revenue: $200k
Status: Active
Total to date:
Downloads: 816m
Revenue: $2.27bn
- Fire Emblem Heroes accounts for 52% of total revenue
- Super Mario Run represents 47% of all installs
- Average revenue per download: $2.79
In discussion with The Game Business, we suggested that Nintendo’s indifference to mobile is ultimately all about control, or Nintendo’s lack of it.
“If you look at the numbers, they’ve made billions of dollars out of mobile,” we told The Game Business. “And for most companies that would be great, but Nintendo is a very different company.”
“It ultimately has its core interest in selling consoles and making games for its own consoles, and not being beholden to platform holders like Apple and Google. [Nintendo doesn’t] have control over those platforms.”
“Now Nintendo has movies and theme parks, they are in a position where they can afford to not worry about mobile too much. If the company wasn’t doing so great, like it wasn’t in 2014, 2015 and 2016, maybe they would show a bit more interest in mobile.”
