You’d think that, especially after the runaway success of Pokemon GO (Free), that Super Mario Run (Free)’s impending success would come as a surprise to no one. Sure, the Mario brand is arguably the biggest in gaming, and with consultants predicting potentially billions of downloads, it’s a given that Super Mario Run will be one of the biggest mobile releases this year, if not the biggest of all time. However, while estimations are all well and good, they’re nothing compared to actual quantifiable numbers and statistics, which are the only real way of communicating the reality of Super Mario Run‘s success. And wow, are such numbers impressive – in an interview with BuzzFeed Japan, Tim Cook revealed that Super Mario Run already has 20 million iOS users who have signed up to be notified on the game’s release this December.
Tim Cook to BuzzFeed Japan: Super Mario Run already boasts 20 million iOS users who chose to get notifications when the game is out in Dec.
— Dr. Serkan Toto (Kantan Games Inc.) (@serkantoto) October 14, 2016
To the majority of people, 20 million seems like a big number, but with similar statistics bandied around all the time on the App Store, it’s difficult to put such a number into perspective. In practice, twenty million is almost incomprehensible – assuming all those who have signed up will download the game and buy the additional content, Super Mario Run has already sold more copies than the last three console Mario titles combined. To be specific, Mario Kart 8 (7.70 million copies), New Super Mario Bros. U (5.34 million copies), and Super Mario 3D World (5.01 million copies) have together sold a total of 18.05 million games and after a few years head start on Super Mario Run, which hasn’t even released yet.
Of course, you cannot look into such statistics too much as there are so many different variables at play, and comparing a smartphone app store to a dedicated games console is fundamentally unfair. However, these new numbers only confirm what we already knew – Super Mario Run will be a gigantic success, will make Nintendo obscenely rich, and hopefully lead to even more iOS releases in the future.
[via @serkantoto]
