Line's Disney Tsum Tsum has earned $1 billion
Mobile hit launched in January 2014, has been downloaded 70 million times
The hit free-to-play mobile game Disney Tsum Tsum has earned more than $1 billion in revenue.
Line, Disney Tsum Tsum's developer and publisher, launched the game in its native Japan in January 2014, with an English language version following in July of the same year. It has now available in 154 countries and regions.
As of April 11 2017, had racked up $1 billion in total sales from around 70 million downloads. The last time we reported on Disney Tsum Tsum's performance was in March 2015, when it had earned $300 million in revenue after just over a year on the market. With another $700 million following in the next two years, it points to remarkably consistent sales.
Disney Tsum Tsum is certainly among the biggest hits in the portfolio of Line Corp., the mobile messaging company that raised $1.1 billion from an IPO in July last year. The Walt Disney Company, meanwhile, made both its clearest attempt at building a games business and exited the industry almost altogether in the time since Tsum Tsum launched.
Disney Interactive posted its first annual profit in November 2014, at which time Disney Infinity was the focus of big spending in both marketing and development. In May 2016, however, the company called time in its publishing operation, shelving Infinity and cutting 300 jobs in the process.
Disney's interest in the games industry is now mainly as a licensing opportunity, through products like EA's Star Wars games and, yes, Disney Tsum Tsum.