Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is shaping up to be the next cornerstone game produced by Nintendo for the new Switch console, after The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. True, both games are also available on the WiiU, but they are much better when played on the Switch.
More importantly for Nintendo, they're selling extremely well on the platform. Breath of the Wild sold 2.76 million units on the platform with the unprecedented attach rate of over 100% (the Switch sold 2.74 million so far) and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe seems poised to repeat that kind of success.
In a note to investors, Jefferies' Senior Equity Analyst Atul Goyal tried to convey how big it could really be:
No, this is not just any ordinary success. The scale of this success is many times bigger than what is visible with ‘MK8D sales of 459K units exceeded MKWii sales of 405K’. Analyzing the scale, we realize that like-for-like, MK8D is mega-hit on a different scale altogether (maybe 5-10x better).
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold 459K units in the United States on its launch day alone, and it was also the first Nintendo game to top weekly UK charts since Pokemon White did it on the DS back in 2011; when considering the Mario franchise only, this is the first time at the top since Mario Kart Wii in 2008, exactly the same game Goyal is using as a comparison. It should be noted that Mario Kart Wii went on to sell almost 37 million copies, making it the best-selling racing game of all time.
It's hardly a coincidence that Nintendo's shares soared to a threshold never seen before this year, with Goyal adding that he believes the company will easily outperform that conservative 10 million units forecast for the next fiscal year.
In our review, Dave praised Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for its improvements over the WiiU version and rated it 8.8/10.
Ultimately, this might just be the best version of the very best Kart racer there is. If you're a Mario Kart 8 veteran then I'm not sure how much here will draw you in, but new players and multiplayer fanatics will find dozens of hours of fun.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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