Shares of Japan’s Nintendo Co soared more than 20 percent in early Tokyo trading on Monday, extending last week’s gains, on hopes that the popularity of its new Pokemon GO smartphone game will boost its results. They have gained 36 per cent since Thursday’s close with the initial momentum coming from the game shooting to the top of free app rankings in Apple Inc’s United States iTunes store.
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As the game took the U.S. by storm, Nintendo’s shares surged by a quarter in value yesterday to their highest level since November.
It was downloaded onto more US Android smartphones than the dating application Tinder within a day of its launch, according to data from Similar Web.
The data on the Pokemon Go downloads came from the app-market intelligence firm “Sensor Tower”.
Amid the hype and chaos surrounding Nintendo’s biggest game release till date, the new augmented-reality game has topped the popularity chart of mobile games ever since its launch.
The immediate success of Nintendo’s Pokemon Go could be the start of a wild turnaround for a company that has been struggling.
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The game itself was created by Niantic, spun off from Google previous year, and Pokemon Company. Nintendo owns a third of Pokemon Company and both have undisclosed stakes in Niantic, which had already developed a similar augmented reality, multi-player game in 2012. Analysts have also noted that the money-making potential from in-app purchases appears to be better than expected. “Pokemon Go” has captured nationwide attention-but in Japan it’s drawing a different kind of focus. Deutsche Bank still rates Nintendo a buy-with an upside of almost 20%. For an early try at mobile gaming and move away from its core console business, well, let’s just say it’s done pretty well.
