Nintendo's Mario Kart Tour sees 90 million downloads in its first week but is yet to rake in the big bucks

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Nintendo's Mario Kart Tour sees 90 million downloads in its first week but is yet to rake in the big bucks
Mario Kart Tour is Nintendo's biggest launch for smartphones so farNintendo
  • Nintendo's Mario Kart Tour had 90 million unique downloads within the first week of its launch.
  • This is a new record for the gaming company.
  • Despite Mario Kart Tour's popularity, it trails behind other Ninendo games when it comes to making money.
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Mario Kart Tour, the newest mobile game by Nintendo, garnered an impressive 90 million unique downloads within the first week of its launch — hitting a new record for the gaming company.

And, it's an even split between Android and iOS users with 59.5% of the downloads coming from the Google's operating system, according to data from Sensor Tower.

This is the sixth game that Nintendo has launched for smartphones. Within 24 hours of its debut, the game raked in 20 million unique downloads with player spending reaching $1 million.

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Despite the game's popularity, it has since been trailing behind other Nintendo games when it comes to making money.

More downloads, less money

Mario Kart Run is the biggest launch that Nintendo has ever seen. In comparison, the gaming mammoth's second most popular launch for mobile Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, only managed to rake in 14.3 million unique downloads.
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Even Super Mario Run, another game in the Mario franchise, barely managed to make it to a little under 13 million downloads within the first seven days of its launch.

So far, Mario Kart Run only managed to earn $12.7 million within the first seven days of its launch. This puts it in third place after Super Mario Run that earned $16.1 million and Fire Emblem Heroes', which earned a whopping $28.2 million.

That being said, all three games work on different subscription models. Fire Emblem Heroes' is a free-to-play game where users have the option to make in-game purchases and Super Mario Run is entirely behind a paywall.

On the other hand, Mario Kart Tour is offering a two-week free trial of its Gold Pass. The Gold Pass allows users to participate in the fastest racing tier available in the game for $5 per month. This means that whether or not revenue will increase remains to be seen after the initial trial period ends.

Mario Kart Tour vs Pokemon Go

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Analysts are waiting to see if Mario Kart Tour will be able to beat the success of the hugely popular Pokémon Go, which launched last year.

In its first week, Pokémon Go was only able to rake in 38.5 million unique downloads but that was mostly because the game's release was limited to three countries. Since then, it has been able to earn $2.95 billion globally making $110 million in August alone.

This sets a very high threshold for Mario Kart Tour to beat.

See also:
Mario Kart Tour is Nintendo's most popular mobile game launch ever, with 20 million downloads so far. Here's what it's like to play.

Here's everything we know about 'Mario Kart Tour,' the huge new game coming to smartphones this year
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