According to Takashi Mochizuki of the Wall Street Journal, Nintendo has provided updated mobile sales numbers at a recent financial briefing Q & A. They're not exact, but we now know that in total, Fire Emblem Heroes and Super Mario Run have obtained a 150 (free) download milestone. Yet, the former yielded higher revenue, despite selling "less than one tenth" compared to the latter.
So if we go by "less than one tenth," as a guide and both sold 150 million, then Fire Emblem sold less than 15 million. Even so, the idea of preying on whales (people who spend lots of money) is real. I know folks who dropped $100 or more hoping to get a "five star pull" of their favorite character -- there's even YouTube videos of the practice.
So while Mario's recognition is believable, the idea of spending $10 on a mobile game is foreign to some. Still I wouldn't call it a failure as it likely recouped its development costs and then some, and Apple clearly helped market it in their stores, so it's a win in terms of brand recognition, as a sort of "we're here" approach to mobile.
Takashi Mochizuki [Twitter]
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