Despite being nearly seven years old, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe continues to be a best-seller for Nintendo. Last year saw the wildly popular kart racer surpass 50 million sales, and now it’s reached another impressive sales milestone in just one year.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe surpasses 60 million sales

According to Nintendo’s latest quarterly financial results, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has racked up 60.58 million sales since it launched in April 2017 up to December 2023.

That makes it the best-selling Switch game of all time, beating Animal Crossing: New Horizons (44.79 million), Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (33.67 million), The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (31.61 million), and Super Mario Odyssey (27.65 million).

It also means Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has sold around eight million copies in the last year, with 52 million sales reported in Nintendo’s February 2023 financial results. That’s an impressive feat considering it’s seven years old and based on a ten-year-old Wii U game. 

Sales will have undoubtedly been boosted by The Super Mario Bros. Movie and the Booster Course Pass, with six DLC waves adding 96 tracks and returning characters from classic Mario Kart games over the last year.

Will a new Mario Kart be announced this year?

With the Booster Course Pass wrapping up last year with Wave 6, fans are hoping Nintendo will announce a new Mario Kart sequel. Nintendo is expected to announce the Switch 2 console this year, which will reportedly have an eight-inch LCD screen.

While no Switch 2 games have been announced yet, a new Mario Kart game seems likely given the success of Deluxe. No Mario Kart 9 details are known yet, but rumours suggest it will feature characters from other popular Nintendo franchises, making it the Mario Kart equivalent of Super Smash Bros.

According to Nintendo leaker Zippo, the new Mario Kart will be called Mario Kart X (alluding to Mario Kart Tour being the ninth game in the franchise) and will launch in 2025, but Nintendo has yet to verify this. If a release is planned for next year, Mario Kart X could still be announced this year alongside the Switch 2.

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