Mario Kart 8: the most successful racing game of all time

Mario Kart 8

When Mario Kart 8 appeared for the Wii U in May 2014, the developer and manufacturer Nintendo was in a difficult phase. The console, which was still quite young at the time, was already emerging as a flop, the sales figures were low. This turned into the opposite with the release of the Switch in March 2017, and Nintendo has been extremely successful again since then. Mario Kart 8 stayed on the Wii U but the big breakthrough was denied, because the console never made it to a wide user base. But in April 2017 Nintendo released the game again as an extended deluxe version for the Switch. And from there began the triumphant advance of the funracer, which is now the most successful racing game of all time.

Also interesting: Nintendo has announced the Switch Lite in a new color

Huge success

With almost 8.5 million units sold, Mario Kart 8 was successful on the Wii U despite everything. Especially when you compare it to the fact that the Wii U only found around 13.5 million buyers. So more than half of all console owners also bought the racing game. At the Switch, however, the great success for MK8 came in the form of the somewhat expanded (but otherwise identical) deluxe version. This is the most successful of all Switch games to date and, together with the Wii-U version, the best-selling racing game of all time.

Recommended editorial content At this point you will find external content from [PLATTFORM]. To protect your personal data, external integrations are only displayed if you confirm this by clicking on "Load all external content": Load all external content I consent to external content being displayed to me. This means that personal data is transmitted to third-party platforms. Read more about our privacy policy . External content More on this in our data protection declaration.

The most successful games of all time

Adding both versions together, Mario Kart 8 (Deluxe) currently has almost 42 million sales. That is even more than, for example, the also very successful Mario Kart Wii (approx. 37.4 million). Overall, the Nintendo Funracer ranks tenth among the most successful video games of all time. Before that are Minecraft (200 million), GTA 5 (140 million), Tetris in the mobile version from EA (100 million), Wii Sports (approx. 83 million), PUBG (70 million), Super Mario Bros for Arcade and NES (58 million), the first Pokémon generation red, blue and yellow (approx. 47.5 million), Wii Fit or Wii Fit Plus (almost 44 million) and Tetris in the Nintendo Version for Game Boy and NES (43 million).

Read NSW 0

Already heard? - This Easter egg can be found in many Nintendo games!

The most popular Easter egg in Nintendo games is Totaka's song. We'll show you how to make it sound! 0

Gaming evergreens: Our game recommendations for the isolation time

In this special, our editors reveal their personal gaming evergreens as recommended games for you during the isolation time. 0

Nintendo Switch: New eShop sale at the start of the year - these are the game deals

Nintendo is starting the new year with an eShop sale. The deal includes selected games for Nintendo Switch. var lstExcludedArticleTicker = '1370511,1347714,1346305,1340355';

Mario Kart 8 in the test

Our big test of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (buy now € 47.99) for the Switch, in which we gave the Nintendo racing game a very good rating, can be found here. If you are interested in the Nintendo topic in general, then check out our Nintendo podcast. It appears every Wednesday at 3 p.m. and everywhere that podcasts are available - for example on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Sources: Mat Piscatella / Wikipedia / IR information from Nintendo Japan