78 million downloads. That’s how many er… downloads Nintendo’s first mobile game, Super Mario Run, has secured since it launched in December last year.

The total of 78 million downloads for Super Mario Run is impressive. Even more impressive is the fact that more than half of those downloads, 40 million or so, occurred in the first four days that the game was available. That’s a respectable number by anyone’s reckoning, especially since the Android version has yet to drop. The key question for the company, however, has been “Will the game make any money?”

The answer to this is ‘yes’, though the percentage of downloaders who actually paid for the game is rather puny. Around 5% of people who wanted to guide Mario through the endless runner decided to pay the $10 (or R150 here in SA) asking price for the privilege, but that still resulted in the company making more than $53 million from the title. We’re sure it’d prefer it if the total was a little higher.

That said, Super Mario Run is supposed to get another spike in downloads and users come March this year when the Android version drops. And, no offence to iOS fans, there is a much larger pool of potential paying customers using Google’s mobile operating system. Also, if it’s less than R150, it could see more people forking over money for it. And Android titles are often cheaper than their iOS equivalents, so we’re optimistic.

Source: Wall Street Journal