Mario Kart Tour launched earlier this week on Android and iOS and has already become Nintendo’s most successful mobile title in terms of first day downloads. According to Sensor Tower estimates, Mario Kart Tour was downloaded 20 million times within the first 24 hours of its release. Additionally, they reported that players have already spent $1 million globally on in-app purchases.
Before Mario Kart Tour, Super Mario Run held the record for most first day downloads of all Nintendo mobile games, with 7 million downloads. Compared Super Mario Run, the other apps didn’t come close—the closest being Fire Emblem Heroes with 1.8 million first day downloads, closely followed by Animal Crossing Pocket Camp’s 1.7 million downloads. Nintendo’s most recent mobile title, Dr. Mario World, released in July, was only downloaded 650,000 times on the first day. For further comparison, Pokémon Go saw 6.7 million downloads at launch.
Now, Mario Kart Tour has surpassed these titles, with three times as many downloads as Super Mario Run, making it Nintendo’s strongest mobile game launch thus far.
In terms of revenue, Mario Kart Tour is off to a decent start, as it’s Nintendo’s third best mobile launch in terms of player spending on the first day. Fire Emblem Heroes holds the title for this category, as it grossed around $4.3 million worldwide within its first day. Mario Kart Tour only saw a fourth of that on its first day, though this is likely due to Nintendo and co-developer DeNA experimenting with some sort of season pass monetization. As part of their experimentation, players can currently test out the pass—called the Gold Pass—through a free two-week trial. After the trial, players will be charged $4.99 per month. The Gold Pass is currently the most popular in-app purchase for the game, but actual revenue for that won’t come through until players finish their trials. It’s likely that some will cancel the subscription before they can be charged.
Mario Kart Tour is now available on the App Store and Google Play Store.