Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Sales Reach the Series’ Top Spot

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has been the Mario Kart game across two console generations now, and it’s easy to see why we don’t have a Mario Kart 9 yet. This game has legs for days (years), and it’s unclear if we’ve seen its peak yet. However, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has reached a peak of its own, topping the all-time sales numbers for Mario Kart as a series.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Sales Reach the Series’ Top Spot

This news comes from Nintendo’s latest financial report, which also included news like how the superconductor shortage continues to affect Switch availability. As of this last financial period (ending this past September), Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold another 3 million units, bringing the grand total to around 38.74 million.

That’s officially the most sales for any individual Mario Kart game since the series started on the Super Nintendo.

The following sales data shows what the top of Mario Kart Mountain currently looks like. This data comes from Video Games Chronicle, which cites “third party data.” Check it out:

• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 38.74m
• Mario Kart Wii – 37.38m
• Mario Kart DS – 23.60m
• Mario Kart 7 (3DS) – 18.95m
• Mario Kart 64 – 9.8m

It really can’t be understated just how impressive surpassing Mario Kart Wii is. The Wii was a monolithic success, with a disproportionately terrible software attach rate. But Mario Kart Wii was just as monolithic, constantly selling well after it was considered old news by the gaming community. 

The only first-party Nintendo game that has sold more is Wii Sports, which was sold with the Wii and will therefore never be topped. It could be, but for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to do that, its sales would have to literally double and then some.

And to compare for the fun of it, the original Wii U version of Mario Kart 8 has sold a total of 8.46 million units according to Nintendo’s financial website. That’s the best-selling Wii U game as well, so it’s a great example of the rift between how the Wii U fared and how ridiculous the Switch is doing now.

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