Dragalia Lost's Revenue Per Download Was $25 Its First Month in Japan, More than 4x Fire Emblem Heroes

It's been one month since Nintendo launched its fourth smartphone game—and its first original mobile gaming IP—in Dragalia Lost, the multiplayer action RPG that arrived in five countries on September 26. Data from Sensor Tower's Store Intelligence platform reveals that the game has grossed an estimated $28 million since then, including approximately $23.5 million in the United States and Japan, making it the publisher's second largest mobile launch in those two countries behind Fire Emblem Heroes.

Our first month player spending estimates for Nintendo's mobile titles to date, seen in the chart above, show that Dragalia Lost made just under half as much as Fire Emblem Heroes, but about $3.2 million or 16 percent more than the publisher's late 2016 release Super Mario Run did in its first 30 days on iOS in both countries. Compared to Nintendo's most recent release prior to Dragalia Lost, November 2017's Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, the game grossed approximately $10.5 million or 81 percent more in the U.S. and Japan.

No. 1 for Revenue Per Download

Dragalia Lost is far and away Nintendo's best mobile launch to date in terms of another metric: the ratio of player spending to downloads. The game was installed an estimated 1.3 million times in its first month in the U.S. and Japan, placing it average revenue per download at nearly $18. This is about three times more than Fire Emblem Heroes, which earned just over $6 per download during its first 30 days in the two countries.

About 67 percent of the game's revenue during its first month came from Japan, the key market Nintendo and co-developer Cygames created the title for. Looking at only revenue and installs there, we estimate that Japanese players have spent an average of $25 per download in the first month, compared to about $8.50 spent per install in the U.S. By comparison, Fire Emblem Heroes grossed $5.80 per download in Japan during its first 30 days there.