'Super Mario Run' Nearing 'Pokemon GO' Levels Of Pre-Release Buzz

This week, Shigeru Miyamoto announced Nintendo Co., Ltd (ADR) NTDOY’s first mobile Mario game, Super Mario Run. The announcement happened at Apple Inc. AAPL’s iPhone 7 product launch event, one of the most highly-anticipated and closely-watched annual events in the tech world.

Understandably, the announcement caught traders off-guard, and Nintendo stock soared 28 percent in Wednesday’s session. While Nintendo’s expansion to smartphone gaming has been expected following the success of Pokemon GO, nobody was anticipating Nintendo taking center stage at Apple’s event.

According to data from TickerTags, the publicity stunt already seems to be paying dividends for Nintendo in terms of social media buzz.

TickerTags monitors social media sites to identify trends by searching for words and phrases that appear together in social media content, such as tweets.

Related Link: How Pikachu And Super Mario Doubled Nintendo's Stock

The side-scrolling Super Mario Run may not be as innovative as Pokemon GO, but it certainly has people talking.

“Super Mario” had 83 percent as many social media mentions on Wednesday as “Pokemon GO” had on its announcement date.

After a huge initial spike in Nintendo’s share price, the stock pulled back more than 6 percent on Thursday. Traders will be watching to see if Nintendo repeats the pullback it registered in the weeks following its initial Pokemon GO spike.