It comes as little surprise that 2020 has been great for Nintendo titles to launch in the last year, like the astoundingly popularAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, but most wouldn’t assume that older titles likeMario Kart 8 Deluxewould see similar success. However, it seems as though theSwitch’s flagship cart racerhas had its best year on record since being launched in 2017, continuing a strange precedent for the title.
According to Christopher Dring of GamesIndusty.biz,Mario Kart 8 Deluxehas managed to beat the previous year of sales for every subsequent year after its initial release. This means that as the years have passed for the game, it has only proven to become more popular, even with a lack of DLC or added features coming to the game since launch.
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This new sales record forMario Kart 8 Deluxeis based primarily on reporting of the box sales from the last year, so it doesn’t includeNintendo’s digital sales records. However, this makes the new sales figures even more impressive, as digital sales have been overtaking physical sales over the last few years. So, forMario Kart 8 Deluxeto have more box sales in 2020 in previous years is even more impressive, especially when considering that a number of stores that would have sold these copies were closed for a portion of the year.
As Dring also brings up when speaking on these sales numbers, these are impressive records for a game that was criticized on release for simply being a port from the WiiU to the Switch. Of course, theSwitch has broken sales recordsitself, something that the WiiU didn’t exactly do during its lifetime as what some Nintendo fans assumed to be an extension of the Wii. So, while some may have been disappointed that Nintendo didn’t release a newMario Karttitle that was Switch exclusive,Mario Kart 8 Deluxeis still far from being a disappointment itself, to both the company and the players.
A record like this is going to be hard forMario Kart 8 Deluxeto keep up as the new goal continues to reach higher, but it may be more achievable as more Switch systems continue to ship. However, with recent data namingMario Kart 8 Deluxeas the most popular titlein the entire franchise, it may not be too difficult for the game to keep the same pace that it’s already growing at. It may take a newMario Karttitle to release altogether to finally dethrone this game for good.
