Fire Emblem Heroes generates five times more revenue in its first year than Super Mario Run

Fire Emblem Heroes has generated an estimated $295 million revenue in its first year, according to a report from mobile intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

The second installment in a four-game deal between Nintendo and mobile developer DeNA, Fire Emblem Heroes has proven to be the most successful by far, outshone only by Niantic's Pokémon Go.

As reported by Sensor Tower, Fire Emblem's gross revenue was more than five times the income of Super Mario Run, which has generated approximately $60 million since its December 2016 launch.

Prompted by the lacklustre performance of Super Mario Run and its one-time purchase model, Nintendo has since rethought monetisation strategies with subsequent titles. As a result, Fire Emblem Heroes employs more traditional free-to-play monetisation structures including random loot and consumable in-app purchases.

"It's no surprise given the above that Nintendo chose to also adopt traditional mobile free-to-play monetisation mechanisms for its third smartphone title, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp," said Randy Nelson, head of mobile insights at Sensor Tower.

Nintendo is struggling to find a monetisation model that works however, as demonstrated by the performance of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, which generated only $20 million in the two months following its release, compared to Fire Emblem Heroes which grossed $86 million during the same period.

While Fire Emblem Heroes remains a marked success for Nintendo, it falls well short of Pokémon Go which generated in excess of $1.1 billion in its first year, outpacing even the colossal Clash Royale which came in at $967 million.