It's been 10 years since Mario Kart 8 launched, and it still managed to outsell every single first-party new Nintendo Switch game in 2024
Nov. 5, 20249 new first-party Nintendo games couldn’t manage to outdo Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
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Nintendo’s latest financial results are here, and amongsomewhat slumping sales and a promise that Switch 2 will be announced soonthere’s one big thing to marvel at: Mario Kart 8 just won’t stop selling. 10 years after the kart racer’s original launch on Wii U, the game’s Deluxe successor on Switch still managed to sell better than every single first-party game Nintendo has released this year.
It’s possible Zelda might keep selling well enough to eclipse Mario Kart 8 Deluxe by the end of the year, but even as an avowed Echoes of Wisdom liker I can’t really see it happening. It’s also possible that Super Mario Party Jamboree orMario & Luigi: Brothership, both of which will report first sales data next quarter, could take on Mario Kart, but Nintendo’s setting a high bar for itself.
Nintendo released a total of 9 new games between January 1 and September 30, with Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door having sold 1.94 million units and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD having sold 1.57 million units since launch. A couple of Q1 launches - Princess Peach: Showtime and Mario vs. Donkey Kong - managed to squeak onto Nintendo’s million-seller list for FY24, but they haven’t reappeared on that list for FY25, meaning they’ve fallen well short of matching Mario Kart this calendar year.
According to Nintendo’s official sales totals, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has sold 64.27 million units on Switch, making it the best-selling standalone game Nintendo has ever released, and that’s not even counting the 8.46 million the game originally sold on Wii U. Wii Sports is the only Nintendo game that’s gotten into more people’s hands, thanks largely to its inclusion as a pack-in with the motion control console. Nintendo’s clearly set a high bar for itself withSwitch 2on the horizon, and personally I’m looking forward to the inevitable Mario Kart 9 finally giving its predecessor a proper race.
Here are all theupcoming Switch gamesyou need to know about.
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