The staying power of Nintendo’s racing game franchise, Mario Kart, remains a marvel. I can still remember sitting on the ground, inches away from the TV, playing Mario Kart 64. Seven years later, Mario Kart remains a sales juggernaut.
Kotaku reports that even today, Nintendo’s sales charts are dominated by Mario Kart 8. While that, at first blush, might not sound surprising, it becomes more impressive when you learn that it was first released in 2014, seven years and a whole console ago.
In all, the game has sold 37 million copies, which has undoubtedly been helped by the second life Nintendo‘s latest console, the Switch, has given it. Despite that, though, Mario Kart 8 didn’t really receive a meaningful update for the new console beyond taking advantage of its generational improvements.
Read Also: Mario Kart 8 Gets Gameplay and Features Trailer Before End of Month Release
And yet, the game continues to beat new Nintendo releases with dedicated followings of their own such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Mario Golf: Super Rush, and others. Although New Pokemon Snap beat Mario Kart in its first full quarter of sales with 2 million sales, the karting game wasn’t far behind despite its age, with 1.7 million sales in the same period.
It seems, then, that Mario Kart 8 is a testament to the undying appeal of a well-designed racing game. Despite not having the fancy graphics or as many manufacturer tie-ins as other games like Forza and Gran Turismo, it just does racing well.
As Kotaku argues, Mario Kart also serves a niche in the Nintendo universe, as a more accessible game for inexperienced gamers than, say, Super Smash Bros., but a quicker and slicker gaming experience than Mario Party.
At the risk of turning this into a QOTD, how many of you out there have a copy of Mario Kart 8, and how many still play regularly with people who aren’t otherwise racing fans?