Mario Kart 8 Passes 50 Million Units Sold, As Top 10 Best-Selling Switch Games Revealed

As part of Nintendo's newest earnings briefing, the gaming giant released new sales figures for its most popular games, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe reached a massive new milestone. The kart racer has now surpassed 50 million copies sold to date. As of March 31, the game had sold 53.79 million copies globally, according to Nintendo's public sales data.

This is up from 48.4 million units as of November 2022, so the game sold another 5.4 million copies in three months. A key point here is that the sales figures for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe includes copies sold through hardware bundles, which surely inflates the figure somewhat. In any event, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a fantastic game that can be recommended to pretty much anyone, so it's no big surprise to see it performing so well for Nintendo.

Mario Kart 8 for Wii U sold 8.46 million copies. Together, Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe have shifted 62.25 million units.

Nintendo makes money on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe beyond game sales alone. The company sells the Booster Course Pass ($25) that comes with 48 DLC courses. A total of 32 DLC courses have been added so far, with 16 more come by the end of 2023.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best-selling Mario Kart game ever, surpassing the sales figures of Mario Kart DS (23.6 million), Mario Kart Wii (37.38 million), Mario Kart 7 (18.98 million), and the aforementioned Mario Kart 8 (8.46 million). Unsurprisingly, Mario Kart 9 is now said to be in development with some kind of "new twist."

Beyond Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the list of best-selling Switch games includes Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and more. You can see the best-seller list below.

As for Nintendo's financials, the company reported that Switch sales are now slowing down as the system enters its seventh year in the market. The system is set to get a jolt soon with the massively anticipated launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on May 12.