A reporter with the Wall Street Journal has revealed some interesting information about sales of Fire Emblem Heroes and Super Mario Run. FEH earned the same amount of revenue as SMR despite 10 times fewer downloads.
Nintendo: Mario Run, iOS and Android together, almost there to reach 150 million downloads.
— Takashi Mochizuki (@mochi_wsj) 27 April 2017
With just 1/10th amount of copies of Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes brings more revenue
It is possibly related to the price tag on Super Mario Run. Many people view having to pay before playing as a barrier to their fun while not objecting to spending a hefty cash on a free-to-play game. Especially if it will give them a certain advantage over the crowd advancing through pure in-game means. This way a free-to-play game has a way to make all but infinite amounts of revenue over a buy-to-play title that players can be reluctant to spend $10 on.
