Mkwii

If you need any further proof that Nintendo's evergreen classics are of incredible importance to the company, this little statistic should do very nicely indeed.

Towards the end of last month, Nintendo shared its latest financial report. Thanks to this, we were able to share lists of the all-time best-selling games across Wii, Wii U, DS, and 3DS - as well as another list for Switch - but there was one small detail which we didn't pick up on at the time.

When looking at both Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 8 on Wii U, comparing their sales totals as of March 2019 to March 2018, we can see that the former outsold the newer Wii U release by five units to one during the financial year. Mario Kart Wii jumped from 37.10m units to 37.20m (100,000 copies), while Mario Kart 8 climbed from 8.42m to 8.44m (20,000) across the same time period.

The Wii has a much larger install base than the Wii U, meaning that games for the system are likely to have sold more copies overall, but seeing an 11-year-old game still selling more units than its newer, arguably more refined successor (and one that is a cracking game in its own right), is still pretty surprising.

Whoever's out there still buying brand new Wii games, we salute you.

[source resetera.com, via nintendo.co.jp]