Nintendo has made several attempts to break into the mobile market, but one game has outclassed all of the others in terms of profit, as Fire Emblem Heroes has made more money than all of Nintendo's other mobile titles combined. Fire Emblem Heroes is a free-to-play game with gacha elements that brings the tactical RPG gameplay of the main series to mobile phones.
Fire Emblem Heroes allows players to summon characters from throughout the series to aid them in battle. It's here where the gacha elements come into play, as the player has a random chance of summoning heroes, so people who want specific characters are encouraged to pay real money. The most recent additions to the game are from Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore, which means that idol characters are now in Fire Emblem Heroes.
The formula of Fire Emblem Heroes is clearly appealing to a lot of people, as it's easily Nintendo's most profitable mobile title. Sensor Tower has revealed the global player spending figures in Nintendo mobile games and Fire Emblem Heroes is in the lead by a wide margin with over six hundred and fifty-six million dollars spent. The next game is Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, which has supplanted Dragalia Lost as Nintendo's second-biggest mobile title, with one hundred and thirty-one million dollars. Dragalia Lost is in third place with one hundred and twenty-three million dollars, Mario Kart Tour is in fourth place with eighty-six million dollars, followed by Super Mario Run with seventy-six million dollars, and Dr. Mario World is dead last with four-point eight million dollars. This means that Fire Emblem Heroes has made more profit than all of Nintendo's other mobile games combined.
There are some people who might be surprised that Pokémon Go isn't on the list, but that's because it's the result of a collaboration between Niantic, Nintendo, and The Pokémon Company, and isn't considered to be a Nintendo mobile game. Pokémon Go has made over three billion dollars to date, so it would easily eclipse Fire Emblem Heroes if it was counted.
There was a time when the Fire Emblem series was almost dead in the water, as the developers of Fire Emblem Awakening were told that it would be the last game if it didn't meet sales expectations. Fortunately, Fire Emblem Awakening helped the series find a huge audience around the world and it has become one of Nintendo's most beloved franchises (outside of the Super Smash Bros. fanbase at least). If Nintendo had ended the series with Fire Emblem Awakening, then it would have lost out on hundreds of millions of dollars. The fact that Fire Emblem Heroes has crushed a mobile Mario Kart game in terms of sales is an amazing feat and it shows just how far the series has come in a few short years.
Source: Sensor Tower