Has Super Mario Run already run its course on iOS?
Still don’t think $10 is too much to ask for Super Mario Run? Some new data from App Annie suggests it has already fallen out of the top spot for highest grossing apps and games in the iOS app store.
As of this writing, the app currently sits at #12 on that list, with games like Minecraft, Clash Royale, and Candy Crush regaining their dominant positions.
Despite the free fall, the game is still dominating the top download charts in over 60 countries, but that’s largely due to the fact that the game is free to try. You’ll get to check out the first three levels without paying a dime, but this data shows us that a ton of people are halting at the $10 paywall to continue playing.
And although the $14 million it generated shortly after launch might be great revenue for smaller games by smaller companies, this is Nintendo, and it still only represents just over 4% of the overall Run-playing populace at that time.
It’s no surprise to anyone who has played an endless runner. The games are fun in quick spurts, but they are mostly shallow. That’s by design, but that design doesn’t really lend itself well to a $10 game. Bring that price down by about $7 or more, and things might be going very differently for Nintendo (whose stock has been on a freefall thanks in part to both Super Mario Run’s early performance as well as unsettling rumors regarding the true capabilities of the Nintendo Switch).
We get it, Nintendo. You’re an industry juggernaut and you have the single biggest character in video games in your employ. But that still isn’t enough to get people to want to pay $10 when the game, quite frankly, does absolutely nothing new and offers very little in the way of content. Let’s see what happens when the Android version arrives.
[via Bloomberg]