Mario Kart 8 outpacing Mario Kart 7 in the US

GoNintendo/David Gibson's Twitter

It sold 450K in three days compared to MK7's 250K

Also worth noting is that attach rate for MK8 in the US was 18% compared to MK7's 7%, the former also selling Wii U's week over week 4.1x compared to the latters 2.4x

All on a lower selling platform? Damn.

Thoughts?

Luigi death stare happened

Mario Kart 7 sucked so....

But no, Mario Kart 8 is an incredible game and I'm glad it's selling well. Hopefully it gives the Wii U a much needed boost in system sales.

but mk7 has more sales than there are wiiU consoles :P

that means nintendo needs to sell more consoles to ever even come close.

A NeoGaf thread brought to my attention that the MK8 WiiU bundle is sold out in most places. I ran a quick Best Buy search and there is only 1 store in South East Michigan / Northern Ohio that has it. There are only 3 stores in all of Michigan that have it.

Could MK8 actually be a system seller?

For the US, it seems that way. Not so sure about Japan and Europe though.

It seems like the Wii U audience is a lot more engaged than the 3DS audience. The attach rate should have told us that to begin with, really

To add, here's an article from Polygon and Reggie making his comments. The article notes that Wii U sales have quadrupled, going hand-in-hand with David Gibson's tweet.

"It's one of the things I have to do with certain media, remind them, look, for us, the drive toward the holiday began a couple of weeks ago with Mario Kart 8. And that's off to a fantastic start. For us, on a global basis, and certainly here in the United States, it's driving hardware, which is great to see."

So much for "Wii U is dead".

I was calling this over a year ago.

MK8 & SSB4 the one & two punch Nintendo needed. I hope it revives the wiiu.

@nintendoboy16 Thats pretty impressive given each systems respective install base. I'd like to point out that Mk8 has been out more then 3 days though.....

I hope with enough support they can patch some improvements in -no on screen minimap:(

I love the wiiu. People that sit there and crack jokes about it are jokes themselves. You are truly missing out when you combine that special Nintendo gameplay with HD visuals. A joy to play... And Zelda based on what I saw looks absolutely gorgeous. Combine it with that special fun factor found in most classic Nintendo franchises and it's a slam dunk. People dissing and criticizing these games need to be slapped.

By the way why do I have this feeling that those who criticise the Nintendo franchises are the immature Ponies probably born in the mid 90s and too young and stupid to appreciate Nintendos classic franchises. Boy these Ponies truly ruin gaming.

The Wii U has less games and therefore less options than the handheld had at that same time, so more people are looking for games to buy on their WiI U since there is less support and less games.

I've seen this kind of sales jump before with the N64 (and various other consoles) which was a system that also suffered similar droughts. If someone had asked me if this could happen the answer is yes. We'll also see it again in the future. It's not that big of a deal. When people are starved for awesome games, they buy more of one title in droves.

Good for Wii U gamers in any event. I own two Wii U's, but I just am not the biggest MK fan, but I'm pleased it's doing well.

i have a concern, maybe someone can help me.

i was on digital foundry and they said the game runs at 59 fps, which introduces a regular stutter.

i went to gamersyde and downloaded some direct feed, and i have to say this stutter is noticeable and very distracting. the game looks fantastic, it's a shame about this stutter.

HOWEVER. that's also something which can be fixed. anyone care to comment - have that fixed that stutter yet?

thank you.

mk8 on 3ds pls

No...

Actually, this would be false. When Mario Kart 7 released for the 3DS in December 2011, the 3DS had absolutely nothing outside of Mario 3D Land and an Ocarina of Time remake worth playing- you seem to be projecting the 3DS's admittedly awesome library now backwards in time, but you have forgotten just how abject the 3DS library situation was back in 2011, with cancellations all over the place, and no new game releases. As a matter of fact, Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 presented the first meaningful releases for the system- so when Mario Kart 7 released for the system, it was quite literally the only game worth getting on it, apart from Mario 3D Land.

Now contrast this with the Wii U. Mario Kart 8 launches nearly two years after the Wii U did, and in that period, the Wii U has already amassed a healthy library of exclusives, meaning there are more options for players and owners- we are talking about NSMBU, MSLU, SM3DW, Pikmin 3, WWHD, The Wonderful 101, Donkey Kong, and so on. This seems to indicate that the Mario Kart 8 bump is more 'legitimate' than the 3DS one- that Mario Kart 8 is doing better on the Wii U than MK7 did on the 3DS, when it has less reasons to do so, is impressive.

Just correcting you, really. People often make the common mistake of assuming that the 3DS library was always loaded, even though it was less than three years ago that it was not, so I just figured I would correct you there.

They have not fixed it yet, although to be honest, I can't say I have noticed it much myself yet (from what I understand, it only shows up in online races?)

@charizard1605: yeah i find frame rate judder pretty noticeable.

well, i got the video from here, and i just chose the first one 'mount wario', then downloaded it via torrent. i just double checked with the one below, 'mario circuit' - the problem persists. her indoors can see it too.

ah well. i'll probably get the game anyway, they've gotta patch that out.

?

CrownedKingArthur has robot eyes confirmed. I never noticed that he did before, but I don't have robot eyes to see these things.

And that my friends, is why MK8 is selling so well.

what does that really mean though? that wii u is so shitty that every wii u owner must go out and buy MK8 or else they have no reason to keep their systems?

I'm sure its a great game but all these numbers can be looked at from a different angle. the wii had tons of games so the purchases were more evenly spread across many games....the wii u has like 7 releases this year so everyone flocks to 1 title.

The game is moving consoles too though, not just selling to existing owners.

Sure the Wii U isn't loaded down with games so that is obviously a factor, but it's also just a great game from an immensely popular brand. From the time I've spent with it I think it's easily the best Mario Kart yet, I wasn't too excited for the Mario Kart Wii though.

These sales proved the Wii U needed this game, porting it to 3DS would kill those sales.

The game selling well has nothing at all to do with the library being small. If that were the case, other excellent games like Zombi U and TW101 would have flown off the shelves, too. The game is selling well because it is not only a fantastic game in its own right, but also comes with a free copy of another excellent game. People bought that crappy Wii Play game last gen because it was priced $30 and included a Wii Mote. Throw a great deal in with an excellent game, and you will see sales like MK8.

Not shocking at. I mk8 is a sexy as hell game. This also shows people still prefer the console experience over handheld. want to get my hands on it but im a little broke at the moment. Soon as a get paid I'm definitely picking up mk8 and wii u.

This is exactly what Nintendo needed to get those wii u's selling. Mk8 is doing to wii u what mk7 did for 3ds.

u just selfish