It's fascinating seeing how evergreen games can perform so strongly on Nintendo hardware. This week in the Nintendo Switch UK charts we see the ever popular Mario Kart 8 Deluxe leap from third place to take pole position.
If we had to guess what caused this, it is most likely that many new Switch owners who got the portable powerhouse at Christmas will have snatched up the essential Super Mario Odyssey to go along with it. Of course The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will always be another popular choice too to go along with a fresh console purchase.
Now we're in the middle of January new Switch owners thoughts turn to new purchases, what better than Mario Kart? In the overall multiformat UK charts this lands Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in 5th place behind heavyweights such as Grand Theft Auto V, Call of Duty: WWII, FIFA 18 and Assassin's Creed Origins. Not bad, eh?
[source chart-track.co.uk]
Comments 48
Wow!
Not too surprising given the number of new Switch owners. On top of that, it's been a bit of a quiet patch in the release schedule. There hasn't been a lot to buy over the last few weeks or so outside of a few decent indie games.
A year-old port of a four-year-old game sure has legs, doesn’t it?
With the help of a blue shell no doubt.
@thesilverbrick @BenAV It being the best game ever made also helps.
I want mario kart 9. I had played 8 so much on wii u and just couldn't get into it on the switch. Nintendo you owe us seriously.... ( Wii u owners )
@garydbz25 Lol they owe us nothing.
@garydbz25 the engine is perfect though. A heavy batch of DLC would do me!
@garydbz25 It'd be nice to have some sort of "ambassador program" as with the early 3DS adopters. But on Switch, for Wii U owners.
Not really surprising with all the new Switch owners out there. GTAV being number 1 after being well outside the top 10 is pretty amazing though, while kind-of sad at the same time. All those juveniles who got a PS4/Xbone for Xmas must be having a great time beating up hookers and pulling out teeth with pliers. It is the 3rd best selling game of all time though with 80+ million sales so again it's not really surprising to see it back up there. Now release it on Switch and watch several million more sales be added to its total. Imagine pulling those teeth with motion controls and HD Rumble.
The Eshop charts are more interesting, NBA Playgrounds tops the UK charts and Super Mario Bros Vs the US. Looks like the NBAP devs made a great choice by deciding to re-release their game instead of patching it. It gave them prominent placing on the store front again and with the cheap price all us NBA Jam loving Brits have snapped it up. Plus fair play to little Hamster on acquiring the rights to port SMB Vs. I doubt they're getting as big a cut as they do with the Arcade and Neo Geo games but even still, they must be raking it in.
@gcunit While I can't agree on the best game ever thing, you're right that being an excellent game certainly helps.
Fully deserved, been having so much fun playing Mario Odyssey that I hadn't played Mario kart in a while but decided to fire it up on new years day as we had family round visiting.
Needless to say we had a blast, I'd forgotten just how good it was.
DLC with a bunch of new tracks will make it! No MK 9 needed.
Third parties must be ecstatic about this news.
It must be the late comers, those who were given Switches for Xmas. Mario Kart 8 is the easy choice for them when choosing to buy a new game.
Off topic, but here's a kids getting Switch on Xmas video to warm your hearts.
I've been playing FIFA 18 again for the first time in a while and it has been easier to find an opponent online now than it was in the weeks after it released. I feared it would only get harder as the months went by but obviously Xmas sales and it receiving a good discount have worked out well. It was back in the Eshop charts again too so I bet EA are pretty content with how it sold.
It really is the most re-playable game of all time in my opinion... tons of courses, near perfect racing, easy to play/hard to master... plus now it has a real battle mode.
I do hope we get MK9 on the Switch, but I hope the devs take their time and get it right again... which it seems they will.
Hopefully Wave Race is coming this Summer... and/or Excite Truck.
I’m glad more people are enjoying a fine game. Not to be greedy....but I’d love a little bit of DLC for 8. A new course or two in particular.
While you can say it's good for MK8D, remember it's a port of a years old Wii U game. So you could say it's a poor reflection on how other games are selling on Switch. Something like Super Mario Odyssey being far newer and original should really be ahead of it.
Well that's, random. Good, but random.
Where's the season pass DLC?
Mario number 1
@garydbz25 same. I’ve barely touched it on Switch
Mario Kart is the quintessential evergreen title and the Switch's ideal local multiplayer form factor along with its familiarity with generations of gamers means its maybe more of a must-own title than Zelda and Mario for many Switch owners.
Mario Kart 8 has done the best job of straddling that line of casual vs. serious racers and early tech vs. new tech. The visuals are impressive but also clear and fun, gameplay is as easy to pickup as ever, plus skilled players can still get plenty out of it. So, Mario Kart 8 and Deluxe are even special in the history of Mario Kart, I think.
As long as the Switch keeps selling, MK8D will continue to sell, very much like GTAV.
Well I'm assuming a) a lot of people missed out on MK8 as it was on the WiiU b) wanna get one of the biggest Ninty titles of all time c) want to play with friends
@SLIGEACH_EIRE my thoughts exactly. This says more about Switch's other offerings than it does about MK8.
I still believe until proven otherwise (with facts and numbers) that Switch is largely as successful as it is due to Zelda and the appeal of it being a true, portable successor to the 3DS line.
Essentially, Breath of the Wild is Switch's 'Wii Sports' and the portable factor is Switch's 'wiimote', both in terms of impact and mass appeal.
Aside from MK8 and Odyssey, everything else about Switch is way less impactful and popular with the masses.
And plenty of people are buying 1-2 Switch too.
Well this thread became the negative nancy show didn't it?
Still, nice to see there are some rays of hope from the UK after France, Italy etc. gave us good EU news on this front.
Shame the only rays of hope are Switch specific charts.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE As always, you give wrong explanations in what a port means. Older games in general do not have an expiry date like milk has in your refrigerator. Get on with it.
I've heard that Mario Odyssey is experiencing stock issues across Europe and Japan, which explains why older Switch games are outselling it.
Of course, Mario Kart 8 DX will outsell Mario Odyssey anyways, given that...well...it's Mario Kart.
Zelda is not that big of a deal; I mean it's great for people into that, but there's so much more. Playing Splatoon 2 on it is amazing, and then if you like fighting games, it has or will have every Neo Geo game, you can spend all of your time just playing Stardew Valley, or Rocket League, and then there's people who'd rather play Doom, or Skyrim, Steamworld Dig 2, and now they got Steamworld Heist, Zen Pinball, and there's Xenoblade, all incredible games there you can play without ever thinking about playing Zelda.
@BenAV what are they tire of shoving call of duty and fifa up they're ass.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE
That's like saying all new PS4/XBO games are selling badly because they were all outsold by the port of the years-old GTAV.
Maybe, just maybe, people don't care that much about buying the newest and shiniest, and simply want high quality, appealing products. In this case, that means ports of old titles like Mario Kart 8 and GTAV.
Don't you love it when old games sell more then new ones? Totally gives the right message to Nintendo!
Some UK gamers Still NEVER Understand what it called Appropriate Great Games.
They still adore that garbage nsfw games.
How pathetic, how ironic...
Oh dear....
Well deserved ! I have it on WiiU and also on my Switch since it continues to be so successful I’d love to see some more DLC sometime ^^ though I admit I’d also take a brand new MK
@SLIGEACH_EIRE It will make sense when you realize that the existence of the Wii U is irrelevant for most gamers. Also, new games don't need to outsell old games. Splatoon is newer than Mario Kart 8, but Mario Kart 8 outsells it by a large margin. However, Splatoon is still a huge success by any standards.
Great news! Definitely the best multiplayer experience the switch has to offer.
@Anti-Matter I... just... can't...
Let people enjoy what they want, and stop going on a moral crusade, it's getting tiresome.
@Kylo_Ren
Everytime i see those garbage nsfw games on the top, i always condemn them.
I think i was not the only one people against those games. Check on above.
DLC would be nice, as would Smash taking the same approach as MK8 Deluxe rather than being a new game.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE
Not at all.
Take a look at the sales of “Mario” titles in general. The Kart series outsells the other games the majority of the time.
http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Mario_games
Mario Kart is sort of a Nintendo must have title after all. And like others have said, there hasn't been a major new title in a couple weeks. Lots of indies sure, but no big releases.
Well deserved! I haven’t gotten it yet, but I had it on Wii U and it is a brilliant game, it deserves to sell well and be enjoyed. I hope we get some DLC to add new tracks.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Sure, you could say that MK8D sales reflect poorly on other games, but you'd be making a lot of assumptions that you haven't provided any evidence for. The fundamental mistake you'd be making is confusing smaller with small. Saturn is smaller than Jupiter, but it isn't small. Denali is shorter than Everest, but it isn't short. And Odyssey or any other game selling less than Mario Kart doesn't mean they didn't sell.
@gatorboi352 Can you please just admit you're as much of a zealot as the Nintendo Defense Force you claim to see everywhere? You flat out stated your opinion is a belief that you will hold on to in the absence of evidence otherwise. You've given no reason for this belief; you've given no suggestion there is a reason for it. You just believe it.
A phrase I once read summarizes you perfectly: "the zeal of the newly converted". We get it--you were once a single console gamer but now you've seen the light. And in realizing you were wrong you have to let everyone else know that they're wrong too, and will be until they see the same light you saw. Well, eventually you'll grow past that and learn not to care what other people like, nor that they might not like the same things you do. When you do, well, trust me, you'll be embarrassed you ever held such a childish position.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE I think it speaks well of the game, but also how many missed it on the WiiU
@rockodoodle You can't say it sold poorly on Wii U. It sold over 8 million copies there.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE True, but how many Switch owners missed the Wii U entirely? My friends who own a Switch all missed the Wii U. It would not surprise me if more than half of current Switch owners did not own a Wii U. So, MK8D is an entirely new experience for those. Plus, it did change things up some with the ability to store items, new mods, new characters, real battle mode etc. And there might even be a subset of Switch owners who did not buy MK8 for whatever reason. There were 14 million units sold- 8 million copies of MK8 sold.
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