Puzzle & Dragons developer GungHo Online Entertainment's share price (3765:JP) has jumped 55 percent in the last three days, causing its market cap to swell to more than $10 billion.
The studio, which has made headlines around the globe in recent months, now boasts a market cap well in excess of Japanese giants such as DeNA on around $4.3 billion and GREE, whch sits just shy of $3 billion.
Western social gaming giant Zynga also now sits in GungHo's shadow, with a market cap of $2.6 billion.
Cause and effect
The surge seems to have been prompted by a number of GungHo announcements regarding new Puzzle & Dragons games, including a DS port and a Japan-only spin-off for iOS and Android Puzzle & Dragons Challenge.
GungHo has also just launched an English language version of Puzzle & Dragons for Android, although it is still not available in key territories such as the UK.
Despite its limited worldwide availability, however, Puzzle & Dragons is still a likely contender for the most lucrative mobile game in the world.
Puzzling
In February alone, GungHo Online grossed roughly $106 million.
Tokyo-based mobile gaming consultant Dr Serkan Toto estimates that Puzzle & Dragons generated somewhere between $62 million and $86 million of that total.
GungHo Online CEO Kazuki Morishita
And the game is attracting new players at a remarkable rate, too, reliably adding one million new users every couple of weeks. At last count, Puzzle & Dragons had more than 12 million players.
[source: Serkan Toto]
Top Stories
News
7 hours ago
Week in Views - Apple back themselves bigstyle, Clash bags Haaland and dreams come true at King
News
9 hours, 51 minutes ago
Mobile Movers: All the latest appointments and job moves from around the industry
News
10 hours, 36 minutes ago
Squad Busters has 20 million pre registrations with 30 million in its sights
News
10 hours, 58 minutes ago
Carry1st's African Cup to feature Call of Duty: Mobile tournament with $15,000 prize pool
News
7 hours ago
Week in Views - Apple back themselves bigstyle, Clash bags Haaland and dreams come true at King
Feature
9 hours, 12 minutes ago
Apple and Nintendo's Delta blues: A legal timebomb or just the new normal?
News
9 hours, 51 minutes ago
Mobile Movers: All the latest appointments and job moves from around the industry
Events
GameDev Atlantic 2024 | May 4th | |
LA Games Conference 2024 | North America | May 6th |
Mobidictum Meetup Berlin May 2024 | Europe | May 7th |
Valencia Indie Summit 2024 | Europe | May 16th |
Mobidictum Meetup Tallinn May 2024 | Europe | May 21st |
Israel Mobile Summit 2024 | Middle East | Jun 6th |
WN Conference Istanbul 2024 | Jun 11th | |
DevGAMM Vilnius 2024 | Europe | Jun 14th |