Nintendo’s Early Success with Miitomo Shows Hope In Adapting to Mobile

Ever since it was announced last fall, we've closely followed the development of Miitomo, Nintendo's first mobile app, from the initial, "Wait, is this thing a game or not?" reveal to the "Wow, it comes out later this month and has huge implications for Nintendo's future in a mobile gaming world dominated by the likes of Clash of Clans and Game of War"hands-on preview.

We've paid such close attention because, well, it's Nintendo's first mobile app, which automatically makes it a big deal, but also because by waiting so long to jump into mobile, Nintendo has allowed companies that didn't even exist 10 years ago like Supercell (Clash of Clans) Machine Zone (Game of War) to set the agenda for what it means to be a successful mobile game. In other words, the company behind the GameBoy, which invented the very idea of mobile gaming nearly 30 years ago, was being beaten at its own game.

But now that a week has passed since Miitomo was released in the US, it's only fair to ask, How's it doing?

Answer: Not bad, but it doesn't quite appear to be a blowout success either.

The app was steadily ranked as the top downloaded social networking app in the US iOS App Store throughout the first week of availability, according to research firm App Annie. And while downloads are nice to have, the real measure of its success is how much money it's making for Nintendo. After all, a game like Clash of Clans brings in nearly $1 million in sales per day for parent company Supercell.

According to App Annie, Miitomo has hovered in the top 10 highest grossing US social networking apps since its release; it was ranked 10th on Wednesday. It's nowhere to be seen, however, in the overall top grossing apps, where apps like Spotify, Clash Royale, Clash of Clans, and Netflixare all in the top 10. Early days, yes, but anyone who thought Miitomo would print money for Nintendo right out of the game like the Wii did way back when might be slightly disappointed.

The app has found some degree of success in its home market of Japan as well, with the research firm SimilarWeb noting that Japanese users aren't abandoning ship after three or four days, which it calls the "average lifespan" of a new app. Instead, Japanese users are spending an average of 22 minutes inside the app per session—considered an "above average retention rate."

How Miitomo fares from here, after the initial shine wears off, is less clear.

The app does have some of the usual hooks commonly found in mobile games (think Clash of Clans and the like) that are designed to keep you coming back day after day, including daily bonuses that reward you with coins and other in-game items for completing certain tasks (including merely logging in). And Nintendo frequently updates the in-game shop, giving you the chance to deck out your avatar in all sorts of new virtual clothing. And yes, people do that, otherwise apps like Kim Kardashian's wouldn't be as successful as they are.

Whether or not that's enough to keep casual fans glued to the app in the weeks to come—Nintendo told Motherboard before launch that it was looking to win back the attention of people who last paid attention to it during the Wii era—remains to be seen.