Nintendo's new app nabs third most downloaded mobile game in Q3 within 6 days

Nintendo's racing game, Mario Kart Tour was the third most downloaded mobile game app worldwide in the third quarter of this year despite being available for just six days of the period. Launched on 25 September, the game saw 90.1 million downloads in its first week, according to SensorTower's Q3 2019 Store Intelligence Data Digest.

The download rate is the fastest to date for Nintendo's mobile games, setting it up well to be a top grossing game for the next quarter, said the mobile app intelligence firm. The only game with higher downloads all-time is Super Mario Run, which accumulated 230 million downloads since its release in December 2016.

Mario Kart Tour's revenue of US$10.9 million also surpassed Dr. Mario World (US$2.7 million), which was launched two months earlier in July. Its monetisation methods include "gacha" system for characters and karts as well as “Gold Pass” monthly subscription.

Unsurprisingly, Mario Kart Tour also takes the top spot for first week downloads. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, with 14.3 million downloads, was a distant second.

Other app trends

Across all categories, Facebook’s WhatsApp was the top app worldwide for the 12th consecutive quarter. The last quarter when WhatsApp was not the top overall app was back in Q3 2016, when Pokémon GO took the top spot. TikTok takes the second spot in Q3, surpassing Messenger (3rd) and Facebook (4th). It bounced back with 13% growth in downloads quarter-over-quarter after two quarters of declining downloads, said the report.

Overall, worldwide app downloads totalled 29.6 billion in the third quarter, a 9.7% year-over-year increase. Google Play downloads increased 11.4% to 21.6 billion, while App Store downloads increased 5.3% to eight billion.

Downloads in India was the highest, followed by US and Brazil. Indonesia came in fourth, despite a 10% decrease in downloads quarter-over-quarter. The top 10 countries were the same as in Q2, except for Great Britain passing Thailand to take the tenth spot.

Sensor Tower’s mobile insights team compiled the download estimates provided in this report using its Sensor Tower Store Intelligence platform. Figures cited in this report reflect App Store and Google Play download estimates from 1 July 2019 to 30 September.

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