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The recent surge of interest in mobile title Pokémon GO has caused Nintendo's share price to double, which means that the company is now worth more than rival Sony.

On Tuesday Nintendo's shares jumped by 12 percent, contributing to a 120 percent rise since the app was launched. 2.5 trillion Yen (approximately £18 billion / $23 billion) has been added to Nintendo's value since release, giving it a market value of 4.5 trillion Yen (£32 billion / $42 billion). In contrast, Sony - which has enjoyed bumper success with its PS4 console this year while Nintendo's Wii U has struggled - stands at 4.1 trillion Yen. It's the first time that Nintendo has leapfrogged Sony in overall value since July 2014.

Last Friday, Nintendo broke a Japanese stock market trading record when it was responsible for the highest value of shares traded in one company in a single day this century. A staggering 476 billion Yen of shares changed hands within 24 hours.

Nintendo isn't the only beneficiary of Pokémon GO's success, of course. It owns 32 percent of The Pokémon Company, along with Creatures (which handles merchandise) and Game Freak (the developer of the original games). However, of those three companies, Nintendo is the only one whose stock is traded publicly - the others are privately owned, and therefore cannot be a target for investors. That means Nintendo is almost single-handedly reaping the benefits of the game's popularity, at least when it comes to the stock market.

[source telegraph.co.uk]