People don’t actually want to pay for Super Mario Run

Less than two weeks after the launch of Super Mario Run on iOS, excitement for the game is wearing off fast.

According to data from analytics firm App Annie (via Bloomberg), Super Mario Run is no longer the top grossing app in any country. That’s down from a high of 59 countries in the first days after its December 15 release.

Super Mario Run is still making Nintendo a lot of money. According to App Annie’s rankings, the endless-running game is still a top 5 grossing app in 23 countries and a top 10 grossing app in 47 countries. But the steep decline in just two weeks of availability suggests that Nintendo misjudged its monetization strategy.

Super Mario Run is a free download, but the free version is limited to just three levels. To unlock the full game, players need to spend $10, which is steep as far as mobile games go. The fact that the game is plummeting in the grossing rankings means that people aren’t impressed enough with the free levels to spend for the full game.

The conversion rate for Super Mario Run is just 1-2%, according to data from Apptopia. In other words, just a couple of users in a hundred actually paid $10 to play the full game.

How is this relevant for Android, you may ask? Well, Nintendo knows that getting Android users (speaking on average) to pay for app downloads is much harder compared to iOS users. Google Play gets double the download numbers as iOS but brings in half the revenue. Seeing that the iOS launch fizzled out so quickly, it would be reckless for Nintendo to use the same monetization strategy on the Android launch next year. We wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo cut the price of Super Mario Run or otherwise change its monetization tactics in the following weeks or months.

Let us know your thoughts. Do you know any iOS users that are hooked on Super Mario Run?