Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Is Nintendo's Best-Selling Game Ever

05/08/2024 08:55 pm EDT

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has become the top-selling video game that Nintendo has ever released. Over the course of Nintendo's lifespan, the Japanese gaming publisher has had almost too many hits to count. Various entries tied to Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Pokemon have all blown up at one time or another across various platforms. Despite this previous success, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has found a way to reach new heights that Nintendo has never seen before. 

As of this week, Nintendo released its latest financial report for the company's 2024 fiscal year. In the process, it was revealed that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has now sold 61.97 million units in total. This doesn't only make it the best-selling game that the Nintendo Switch has ever seen, but it's also the top paid game from Nintendo. The only game that technically has sold more copies from Nintendo is that of Wii Sports. However, given that this was a pack-in game that came for free with the Nintendo Wii for the first many years of the console's life, its sales total is artificially inflated. 

What's even more staggering about this milestone for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is that its sales are even higher when accounting for the original version which came to Wii U. The original Mario Kart 8 sold more than 8 million units on the Wii U. As a result, all versions of Mario Kart 8 have topped 70 million copies, which is absolutely staggering given the install base needed to reach such a total. 

Moving forward, it seems unlikely that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will pass the 82 million mark that Wii Sports resides at. This is primarily because the life cycle of the Nintendo Switch is beginning to come to an end. In fact, Nintendo announced this week that it will be unveiling its next video game console at some point before the end of March 2025. To that end, hopefully Nintendo's next console will bring with it a new Mario Kart installment that fans can flock to once again. 

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