Surprisingly, Nintendo broke a market record in Japan with the help of "Pokemon Go." As the hit Niantic Labs augmented reality game continues to smash records worldwide, Nintendo also smashed Japanese stock market records back at home becoming the most traded company (single day) for this century.
The surprising things is that Nintendo, the Japanese company known to be the largest video game company of the world, did not even develop the "Pokemon Go" game. Yet, on Friday last week, Nintendo became the most traded company in a single day in terms of value in Japanese stock market history this century according to GameSpot. A whopping $4.5 billion worth of Nintendo shares changed hands in a single day, besting single-day performance of Japanese blue chips like Nippon Steel and Tokyo Electric.
In fact, buoyed by the current worldwide "Pokemon Go" frenzy, Nintendo shares market performance has been astronomical. Latest reports that the company's value soared to more than double or a 120 percent increase of its market value in only thirteen days.
CNN Money reports that Nintendo now worth $42.5 billion and is now bigger than established giants Sony, Canon and Panasonic. This spectacular rise in market value is credited to the limited release of "Pokemon Go" last July 6 on selected markets.
Nintendo might not have developed "Pokemon Go" but it owns 33 percent of the Pokemon franchise. Obviously, investors are speculating that the company would be able to cash in on the game's unexpected popularity and universal appeal.
While the "Pokemon Go" game is free, players may still use actual money to acquire special items. These microtransactions could be a cash cow for Nintendo given the game's insanely massive user base.
At this early, reports say that the "Pokemon Go" already earned $14 million from these microtransactions. The income is projected to balloon even further as the game will be introduced to the rest of the world. A ballooning "Pokemon Go" income could only mean one thing for Nintendo - soaring share prices.
