He's back!

This week, Nintendo released the newest game in the Super Mario franchise and this time, he's in your smart phone.

Super Mario Run is Nintendo's first time developing its own app, and fans anticipated its release for weeks. Millions signed up for alerts so they could get it and play the first day it was available.

It was officially released in Canada on Thursday. According to app analytics website, Apptopia, it saw more than 2.8 million downloads in the game's first 24 hours of availability,

​Nintendo expects to top 20 million units in the first month and collect as much as $100-million in that time.

Super Mario made his very first appearance in 1981 as a character in another Nintendo favourite, Donkey Kong. A few years later, Mario had his own game and was conquering worlds one goomba at a time.

Image | Mario in Donkey Kong

Caption: Mario started his hall of fame career back in 1981. This week, Nintendo released Super Mario Run, its first ever smartphone app. (Nintendo)

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Since the release of Super Mario Bros. in 1985, fans have stayed attached to both the game, and its iconic frontman. A relationship Toronto-based game developer Benjamin Rivers chalks it up to nostalgia.

If your first time playing the game is a good experience, "that stays with you for the rest of your life," he told Day 6 host Brent Bambury.

Super Mario Bros. was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame in 2015.