Fire Emblem Heroes reportedly grossed nearly $3 million in its first day

Nintendo’s third major mobile game, Fire Emblem Heroes, was released for iOS and Android on Thursday, and it looks to have had a solid start, both in terms of downloads and in-app purchases. The free-to-play RPG, based on the company’s Fire Emblem console game franchise, grossed $2.9 million worldwide on its first day, according to the research firm Sensor Tower.

The firm claims that revenue number is well below that of Nintendo’s last mobile game, Super Mario Run. It claims that game, which was only released for iOS at that time, brought in $8.4 million in its 24 hours. Also, Pokemon Go reportedly generated $10.2 million in its first day.

However, keep in mind that the Fire Emblem franchise is much less well known to the general public than either Super Mario or Pokemon. Therefore, the $2.9 million worldwide number for Fire Emblem Heroes is actually quite good. Indeed, Sensor Tower claims the game brought in more money than another recent high-profile mobile game, Supercell’s Clash Royale, which it says only had $1.4 million in revenue in its first 24 hours.

In terms of downloads, the firm claims Fire Emblem Heroes had 2 million installs on its first day, about the same as Clash Royale on its first day. Pokemon Go reportedly had 4.2 million downloads and Super Mario Run had 6 million installs. Sensor Tower notes that the “overwhelming majority” of Fire Emblem Heroes revenue and downloads came from Nintendo’s home country of Japan. Again it’s not surprising to hear that, since the franchise is much more popular in that market.

While Super Mario Run lets people unlock all of its content for one $9.99 fee, Fire Emblem Heroes is a more traditional free-to-play game, as players can purchase in-app content with no real limits. It will be interesting to see if the game can grow in popularity beyond its hard-core audience though.

Meanwhile, Nintendo will finally launch Super Mario Run for Android sometime in March. A planned mobile version of yet another classic Nintendo series, Animal Crossing, has had its launch pushed back to sometime in the company’s next fiscal year, which begins in April. Like Fire Emblem Heroes, it will launch for iOS and Android at the same time.