Nintendo's Mobile Income Holds Steady Thanks To Pokémon GO

Nintendo has published its quarterly financial results and revealed that its smartphone content business continues to do well, largely thanks to an increase in royalty income — essentially, increased income from the company's stake in Pokémon GO.

While there was a slight decline of -0.6% in overall mobile-related income compared to this time last year, an increase in royalty income helped keep things steady this quarter, with overall mobile-related income reaching 13.1 billion yen in Q1 2021.

The incredible and continued success of Pokémon GO has been a boon for every company involved with the game — it recently hit $5 billion in revenue just before its fifth anniversary. The recent Pokémon GO Fest 2021 event alone reportedly earned a whopping $21 million over just two days.

This news comes on the heels of Nintendo's announcement that it's shutting down its mobile game Dr. Mario World on 1st November with players' play history transferring to a "Dr. Mario World Memories" web page once the service ceases. Whether the game underperformed against Nintendo's expectations or if the company is simply uncomfortable continuing to promote a game that features viruses so prominently while the COVID pandemic rages on is unclear.

Nintendo still has other mobile games such as Mario Kart Tour , Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Dragalia Lost and Fire Emblem Heroes on the go, though, and it will obviously be hoping that its upcoming Pikmin app — another partnership with Pokémon GO developer Niantic — will be able to replicate some of the success of the Pocket Monster title.