Nintendo's new Super Mario Run mobile game set a new App Store downloads record, with more than 40 million downloads in its first four days of availability.
The game would be even more successful, however, if it didn't require a steep fee for the full game experience.
For those unfamiliar with the matter, Super Mario Run launched on iOS as a free game, but not really. Only limited content is available with the initial download and unlocking the full experience requires players to shell out $9.99.
The steep price, along with the always-on connection required to play the game, sparked some severe criticism and may take a toll on Nintendo in the long run. Nintendo shares plunged on price criticism and the lack of a DLC in the future, but the game is raking in impressive downloads so far.
Record-Breaking Mobile Game
Super Mario Run generated 2.85 million downloads on its first day and continued to break App Store records. App analyst Sensor Tower reports that the game hit 25 million downloads in four days.
By comparison, global phenomenon Pokémon GO took 11 days to hit that milestone, albeit its availability was limited at launch. At the same time, Sensor Tower's number is much lower than the official figures from Nintendo, which reports (translated) more than 40 million iPhone and iPad downloads for the game worldwide.
Despite the impressive downloads, however, not many Super Mario Run fans are willing to pay the price for the full game experience.
"It can't be understated, however, that the vast majority of early Super Mario Run downloaders clearly find the full game pricing prohibitive, and we can only image how much better the conversion rate could be at $2.99 or even $4.99," Sensor Tower points out.
Super Mario Run Disappointment
Nintendo shares dropped 11 percent since Super Mario Run hit the market, indicating that company investors are disappointed with the game's model and release. The shares plunge also stems from negative user reviews on Apple's App Store, where Super Mario Run currently has a rating of 2.5 stars out of 5 based on 5,782 reviews. The disappointing user reviews are mostly tied to the full game's price. The game is not yet available on Android.
While Mario is the world's most popular gaming franchise, only roughly 8 percent of people who try Super Mario Run end up paying for the full experience, Sensor Tower's Spencer Gabriel explains to Reuters.
The analyst adds that this is likely not tied to the quality of the game, but the perceived value in comparison to other games that are really free to play, offering more content and optional microtransactions.
In the end, the initial downloads Super Mario Run generated are impressive and shattered App Store download records, but don't necessarily mean the game will be successful considering that not many users are willing to go beyond the initial free experience. On the contrary, it's possible that many players who downloaded the free game will uninstall it once they're done with the initial content and have to pay for more.
