Pokémon GO Helps Bump Nintendo's Market Cap $9 Billion In 2 Days

Shares of Tokyo-listed Nintendo Co., Ltd (TYO: 7974) NTDOY soared higher on Monday and gained nearly 25 percent as investors cheered the company's new, augmented reality game called "Pokémon GO."

Pokémon GO is an augmented reality mobile game that allows players to capture, battle, train and trade virtual Pokémon characters that appear throughout the real world. Within days of its release, the game helped boost Nintendo's valuation by $9 billion.

Nintendo's valuation at the end of Tokyo's trading session on Monday was 2.87 trillion yen, or $28.02 billion.

Bloomberg, citing data from SimilarWeb, stated that Nintendo's reinvention of the classic 1990s' game that was playing on a Gameboy device is soon set to boast more daily active users in the U.S. than Twitter Inc TWTR.

While the game itself is free to play, users will likely be forced to spend money within the app to advance in the game.

Related Link: Social Data Suggest Big Release Of New Pokémon Game

"Pokémon GO has gone beyond success to become a phenomenon, topping the revenue grossing charts in the three regions into which it has been launched: the U.S., Australia and New Zealand," Bloomberg quoted Deutsche Bank's gaming analyst Han Joon Kim as saying.

However, David Gibson of Macquaire Capital Securities pointed out a key concern. According to the analyst, Nintendo will see limited income from the game since it will need to share the revenue with Apple Inc. AAPL's AppStore, its software developer Niantic, as well as the holders of the Pokémon rights.

On the other hand, Kim suggested that Nintendo's game proves that there are "dormant" Nintendo fans that are all "eager to trial its content for smartphones.

"By the fall, Nintendo expects to bring proven content, such as Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem — and the blend of strong IP, Nintendo's distribution power and proven content could lead to financial success," Kim stated

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Posted In: NewsMoversTechMediaGeneralDavid GibsonGameboyHan Joon KimMacquarie CapitalNintendoNintendo ValuationPokemonPokemon GoSimilarWeb
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