Pokemon GO, which already has some absurd statistics attached to it, now adds perhaps its most impressive: It gave Nintendo the largest one-day stock turnover of the century.
On the Topix (Tokyo Stock Price Index), Nintendo traded ¥476 bil. (roughly $4.5 bil.) on Friday, the most any company has traded on a single day this century. The next runner up, Tokyo Electric, traded less than ¥450 bil. on a single day.
This comes on the heels of Nintendo’s stocks rising 10% overnight when Pokemon GO released Wednesday June 6th, and on the following Monday, their stock rose 25%, the most a company can rise in a day. Precautions set on the stock market limit the growth or decline of stock to prevent panic and catastrophic days.
Even so, Nintendo’s stock has managed to increase over 70% since Pokemon GO’s release, going from £13 bil. to £19.6 bil (roughly $26.2 bil.). This is the largest share increase for Nintendo since its 1989 release of Dragon Quest in the United States, and even that was only a 35% increase.
This is all perhaps a bit ironic, as Nintendo isn’t directly involved in Pokemon GO. While many recognize Pikachu as a mascot for Nintendo through the Pokemon and Super Smash Bros. franchises, Nintendo only holds non-majority stakes in both developer Niantic and publisher The Pokemon Company.
In any case, this is excellent news for Nintendo, Niantic, and The Pokemon Company alike. The game’s popularity, while potentially peaking now, stands to have good user retention, and such growth and stability can only represent a vote of confidence for future projects from these companies.