Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Has the Best Launch in Franchise History

The title raced out to a lead over Mario Kart Wii and never looked back.

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So many racing metaphors here, but we'll play it straight by saying that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for Nintendo Switch has overtaken Mario Kart Wii in the race for fastest-selling game, and is celebrating in the winner's circle.

Oops. Oh well.

Nintendo has revealed that MK8DX sold more than 459,000 units either through packages or digital sales when it launched on April 28, beating out Mario Kart Wii, which sold 433,900 units when it was released back in 2008. The attach rate is about 45%, meaning that almost half of the users that bought a Nintendo Switch also have a copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

The publisher also played the review score card, saying that the racing game had received more perfect scores than any previous Mario kart game in franchise history. While good, that is a dubious and arbitrary distinction at best, especially since we thought it was a great game, but didn't give it a 10. 

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has obviously found its share of fans, having almost immediately dethroned The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as the top selling game on Amazon. It will be interesting to see in Nintendo's upcoming lineup of Switch titles for 2017–games like Arms, Splatoon 2 and Minecraft–can have as good of a showing as MK8D takes a victory lap

Check out this Shine Thief gameplay footage of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

Contributing Editor
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