Nintendo's Price 2016: 'Pokemon GO' Proving To Be Magic Bullet For Gaming Giant [VIDEO]
Augmented reality game Pokeéon GO is quickly becoming a worldwide phenomenon, with users of the app overtaking the overall users of Tinder within days of its release. As the game gets more and more popular, parent company Nintendo, which owns a third of The Pokémon Company, has begun reaping the benefits of the hit title.
With avid Pokémon fans spending the previous weekend getting off their couches and scouring the real world for Pokémon using their mobile devices, Nintendo's shares have surged significantly. It seems like Nintendo's investors are very happy with the game's turnout so far, causing the gaming firm's shares to soar on the stock market.
As of Monday, Nintendo's shares have surged almost 24.52 percent. Such a drastic increase has resulted in Nintendo's market value increasing by almost $11 billion, with the gaming firm now valued at $28 billion from $17.1 billion during Friday trading.
As much as the radical surge in Nintendo's stock prices due to Pokémon GO's popularity is notable, however, the company's current market value still remains far behind its peak back on Oct. 30, 2007. During that time, formidable sales figures from the Wii, Nintendo's last hit home gaming console, pushed the company's stock prices so much, the company was valued at a staggering $79.9 billion.
Nintendo has always been a company that prided itself in its hardware. Indeed, through the decades, the Japanese gaming firm has made its name by creating some of the most revolutionary and iconic gaming consoles of all time, such as the NES and the Wii.
However, Nintendo's tendency to bet big on hardware has been found to be ineffective as of late, with the firm's fortunes taking a hit due to poor sales figures from its Wii U console, the successor to the extremely successful Wii.
With casual gamers moving on to mobile devices as a platform for playing games, Nintendo's success with Pokémon GO might be a very big sign for the gaming giant. Indeed, Nintendo might be late into the mobile gaming market, but with its extremely strong lineup of IPs, it might very well end up dominating the field.
If any, Pokémon GO is starting to prove that notion.
