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We already know that Mario Kart 8 enjoyed an exceptional launch, selling 1.2 million copies worldwide in its opening weekend. In an analyst meeting behind closed doors, it seems that the title has seized the honour of, initially at least, outperforming its 3DS predecessor.

Senior Research Analyst David Gibson has been in attendance at this analyst briefing, and has provided the following snippets of information.[/strong]

An attach rate of 18% for Mario Kart 8 in three days is certainly impressive, compared to the 7% of Mario Kart 7, especially bearing in mind that the kart racer arrived in late 2011 on 3DS against the context of struggling sales for the portable; it did have Super Mario 3D Land for company, of course. The fact that Mario Kart 8 sold 200,000 more copies than its predecessor over the launch weekend is eye-catching, but most pleasing is the figure that it provided a substantial hardware boost.

These are figures for North America, though of course we've seen hardware boosts in Japan and the UK, too.

Great news for Wii U and Mario Kart 8, and it'll be interesting to see the momentum of both through the summer months, in particular.

[source neogaf.com]