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Fire Emblem Heroes, Nintendo’s latest mobile game, made $2.9m on its first day, according to mobile data firm Sensor Tower, after being downloaded over 2m times on Android and iOS.
That’s still some way behind Nintendo’s first app, Super Mario Run, which Sensor Tower estimates grossed $8.4m in revenue on its first day, but it’s more than double what Supercell’s Clash Royale grossed during its first 24 hours, which Sensor Tower pegs at $1.4m. Pokemon Go, meanwhile, is still way out in front with a reported Day One gross revenue figure of $10.2m.
In terms of downloads, Fire Emblem Heroes is roughly on par with Clash Royale, with both titles having been reportedly downloaded 2m times. Super Mario Run, on the other hand, was allegedly downloaded 6m times on Day One, but that’s not exactly surprising given Mario’s fame as a Nintendo mascot.
According to Sensor Tower, most of Fire Emblem Heroes’ downloads and revenue has come from Japan. This is also to be expected, given its popularity in Japan compared to other territories, but with the US being the second-largest territory so far, Sensor Tower says it’s impressed by the app’s impact.
"As one of the lesser known properties among non-hardcore gamers, especially in the West, we’re definitely impressed by its standing with U.S. smartphone gamers so far," Sensor Tower’s head of mobile insights Randy Nelson wrote on its website.
"As of this writing,it is already the No. 17 ranked iPhone app in terms of revenue on the U.S. App Store."
Of course, it’s still too early to predict how profitable Fire Emblem Heroes will be in the long term, but Sensor Tower says that when most of the early adopters are likely to be diehard fans, it’s probably unlikely that it will enjoy the same success as either Super Mario Run or Pokemon Go.
Fire Emblem Heroes launched on February 2nd in the UK on Android and iOS, and is a free-to-play mobile strategy game with a ‘gatcha’ monetisation structure. This lets players pay for additional orbs that they can then use to purchase additional characters for their army as well as refill their stamina gauges – a structure that’s very common in Japan but less so in Western countries.
As Bloomberg’s Yuji Nakamura notes, "In the West, potential for success is less clear. Some popular gacha titles like Granblue Fantasy are already available in English, but few have replicated the success they see in Japan or matched the popularity or profitability of Western games like Candy Crush. If Nintendo can pull it off, it would be a first. Either way, it’s a sign the companywill be aggressive in trying to generate revenue from mobile."
