Fire Emblem Shadows' First-Week iOS Revenue Hits Only $90,000

Nintendo's first new mobile game in eight years sees a tepid reception, with its gacha-free model failing to compete financially with their older, gacha-based hit, Fire Emblem Heroes.

Nintendo's first new mobile game in eight years, Fire Emblem: Shadows, has had a rocky start, generating only $90,000 from iOS players in its first week. In a stark demonstration of the new title's struggle for traction, its 8-year-old predecessor, Fire Emblem Heroes, earned over four times that amount in the very same week, pulling in $437,000.

According to data from analytics firm AppMagic, the launch week earnings for Shadows represent a mere 1% of the $8.2 million that Fire Emblem Heroes made during its own debut in 2017. The low figures point to a fundamental disconnect with the market, which analysts attribute to major differences in the games' design and payment models.

A Tale of Nintendo's Two Models

Fire Emblem Heroes became Nintendo's only billion-dollar mobile hit by adapting the series' classic turn-based strategy and combining it with a highly lucrative "gacha" system, essentially a slot machine where players spend currency for a random chance to win their favourite characters.

In contrast, Fire Emblem Shadows is a completely different genre, a real-time deduction game, which may not appeal to the established strategy fanbase. Furthermore, it has no gacha mechanics. Instead, players can buy a season pass for a guaranteed unlock of a new, redesigned version of the popular legacy character, Lyn.

Nintendo also released this same new Lyn design into the old game, Fire Emblem Heroes. The result was immediate. On the day of her release in Heroes, player spending in the gacha game surged by 217%, hitting $112,000 in a single day.

This means the new character design for Shadows likely earned more money in 24 hours inside the old gacha game than it did over seven days in its own game's season pass.

The regional data shows that Japan is the biggest market for Shadows, accounting for 56% of its spending, followed by the US at 32%. The performance of Shadows sends a clear message about the modern mobile market: even with a beloved brand like Fire Emblem, changing a successful formula for gameplay and monetization is a risky move that can struggle to compete, even against its own family.