News

Nintendo sees mobile gaming as a marketing strategy as opposed to a revenue generator

The company may see success in mobile gaming, but console remains the top earner

Nintendo sees mobile gaming as a marketing strategy as opposed to a revenue generator

Nintendo has revealed that, despite mobile gaming being the most profitable sector of the games industry, it sees mobile gaming primarily as a means to introduce its IPs to new players.

In a statement for the company, a representative told Axios “While we feel the importance of generating revenue and profit through our mobile business, our basic strategy with the business is to expand the number of people who have access to Nintendo [intellectual property.”

This statement comes in the wake of the shuttering of Dragalia Lost, Nintendo’s first original IP on mobile devices. It appears that Dragalia Lost doesn’t tie in with the company’s current mobile strategy.

Although the company continues to see steady revenue from mobile games, consoles titles remain the main driver for the company’s success. Nintendo currently runs five mobile titles, all of which are based on existing games.

The Pokemon series, developed by the Pokemon Company which is co-owned by Nintendo and Gamefreak, has proven to be a particular draw on mobile devices, thanks in part to the ongoing success of Pokemon Go.

The potential of mobile marketing

Since 2018, Nintendo has both launched and shuttered three games on mobile devices. As with other games companies with a focus on consoles or PC titles, such as Sony and Microsoft, mobile currently represents a minority of Nintendo’s earnings. Between April and September 2022, the company earned $169 million from mobile games and related income, compared to $4.5 billion from Switch games and hardware.

Nintendo has many games in development for the Switch console, however it hasn’t released or announced a new game since Pikmin Bloom in October 2021.

“We are focusing on delivering great experiences for our current mobile games through continued updates and improvements while also considering new applications for the future,” said the representative.

Despite the fact that the company is seeing comparatively low revenue from its mobile offerings, we reported last month that the company’s mobile downloads are equivalent to the cumulative unit sales total of all Nintendo hardware, showing that the company still sees a high level of success on mobile platforms.

Earlier this year, we listed Nintendo as one of the top 50 mobile game makers of 2022.


Staff Writer

Lewis Rees is a journalist, author, and escape room enthusiast based in South Wales. He got his degree in Film and Video from the University of Glamorgan. He's been a gamer all his life.