While many folks on the internet felt the death knell of Mythic yesterday was a stab to the heart of free to play, recent numbers from the market research outfit Newzoo put in to perspective just how insanely successful the top-end of the free to play world is. Sure, you see these games on the top of the top grossing charts but it’s unreal to consider the scale of things when compared to long-running household brands in video gaming.

As pointed out by A List Daily, in Q1 of 2014, Candy Crush grossed more money than all Nintendo games combined. Sure, that’s easy to rationalize by saying “Well Nintendo didn’t have any big releases and Q4 is where they make all their cash," but the fact remains, that’s a mind-blowing thing to be able to report. They’re not ahead by a small margin either, King is making 56% more money than Nintendo. King has mentioned in the past that Candy Crush generates 2/3 of their revenue, so, that game alone is beating everything Nintendo did.

It’s a curious time to be alive as a gamer, as if you’re 30-something or older right now, you grew up with the NES and Nintendo has likely played a massive part in both your overall life as well as contributing to your personal identity as a gamer. It’s odd to see the company falling farther and farther behind in financials, because, come on, it’s Nintendo.

I’d love to see an alternate universe where Nintendo was similarly riding the mobile gaming tidal wave, just to see how much these reports would change. I mean, my grandma knows Nintendo IP, that combined with something along the same lines as Candy Crush in regards to a free game with nearly universal appeal would be insane I’m sure. But, maybe that could be an episode for a future Sliders series reboot.

[via A List Daily]