Mario Kart Tour got off to a bit of a bumpy start yesterday – with the game's servers collapsing under the pressure of launch demand. Despite the delayed start to the race, this mobile title still managed to perform quite well on its first day.
According to mobile market analyst Sensor Tower (via Venture Beat), Nintendo's smartphone version of Mario Kart is already the top free iPhone app across 58 markets. This includes Japan and the United States. In terms of iPhone app revenue, the free-to-play racer sits in 19th position on the US charts.
In contrast, Nintendo's previous mobile release – Dr. Mario World – was ranked No. 503 for iPhone app revenue on its debut. Fire Emblem Heroes is still Nintendo's best in terms of day-one iPhone app revenue – placing 17th when it was released in February 2017.
Did you download Mario Kart Tour on release day? Leave a comment below.
[source venturebeat.com]
Comments 27
Everyone was playing this game at my school today. Literally everyone. I do have to say, this is a pretty fun time waster. I had some fun with the tracks. But the controls kinda suck, and that pricy gold pass is pretty expensive. But so far, this game is off to a decent start.
Gameplay is good but it's too pricey. Everyone at my school was playing it as well @SpicyBurrito16
Enjoyable game. One of Nintendo’s better mobile offerings
Hey, I don't care less about this game. I can't give a hoot for cellphone games. At least it'll massively fund games I do want!!
This is good advertising for the real deal on Switch. Can't really complain, but no way am I downloading and playing a gimped Mario Kart with touch controls and gambling.
Meh, not interested one bit. I've got more then enough Switch games to worry about playing.
Literally everyone at school was playing this today, including me. It was funny seeing how many people's phones were almost out of batteries by the end of the day, Again, including mine. XD
its actually quite good. Hope they add multiplayer soon though
Not unexpectedly, the controls can't possibly compare with console gamepad-powered stuff. But I downloaded and launched it to get at least a single beep from Belarus upon their radars.
I hope Nintendo don’t turn into a mobile only developer. The more these succeed the more likely that’ll happen...
the worst Nintendo mobile game ever!! awful garbage full of microtransactions ...awful!
How many articles now about a piece of krap mobile game?!
NintendoLife has clearly been paid by Nintendo to not say anything bad about how scummy the game's Pay2win mechanics are. Not to mention, the lootboxes, the fact you need to grind a heck ton if you don't spend money, and how it's offering you an awful paid pass just to get more unlocks.
Really scummy Triple A practises that I never thought Nintendo would ever stoop down to doing.
Had a quick go, the controls seemed to be off - why am I permanently drifting?
So I can pay £4.99 per month to subscribe to this shadow of a real Mario Kart game for the privilege of unlocking content that would just be in the normal game. Or I can pay £7.99 per month for Gamepass and have access to 200 games including the likes of Gears 5, Forza Horizon 4, Devil May Cry 5, all the Halo games, indie darlings such as Dead Cells and Hollow Knight, worlds gone mad if anyone thinks the first option represents any value for money. You could probably buy a Switch and Mario Kart 8 for the price of unlocking all the content in that "free" game
It’s been fun. I won’t spend money on it but I enjoy it as a mobile game
I downloaded it to see how it looked and played, but I hated the controls. Maybe I'll give it another chance, but I don't like supporting the concept behind this kind of game. I'm ok with people spending their money on it, but this kind of "mechanics" is not for me
Top free app based on 1 single day of download data?
Another meaningless example of similar headline : "Mario Kart Tour becomes the most downloaded Mobile Mario Kart game in 2019"
why wouldn't they have it so you hold your phone sideways?
@datamonkey
A console and mobile Mario Kart can and will coexist.
Especially since the console Mario Kart makes a lot more money than the mobile one.
Am wondering if this means we'll no longer have a dedicated handheld console with unique games on it like the Gameboy, DS, 3DS (not counting Switch lite as the console is the same with different features).
Was excited then I played it......turd splash flush.
@GutayS5 More then anything else, this is the target audience that Mario Kart Tour is going after. People who want to play Mario Kart without needing to carry Nintendo hardware everywhere they go.
I have a 3DS with Mario Kart 7, but I'm enjoying this game immensely and since I almost always have my phone in my pocket, its fun to pull this game out for quick gameplay sessions.
This game is a bite-size Mario Kart that gives you a taste of the bigger candy bar, much like how Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes were bite-size versions of their counterparts on Nintendo hardware.
To put it this way, Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a full-size candy bar to Fire Emblem Heroes' bite-size format.
I honestly think many people are slamming this game a bit too harshly. If you were expecting Mario Kart 9, then you set the bar a bit too high.
But I think people like you and your classmates and myself are the true measure of this game's success. If people are playing Mario Kart Tour until their batteries are nearly dead, then Nintendo accomplished what they set out to do.
They managed to put another franchise on devices and reach an audience who would otherwise never play Mario Kart on Nintendo hardware. But it's also a gateway game as well. Maybe some of these gamers who turned their noses up at Mario Kart and Nintendo's hardware might enjoy their taste of the bite-size mobile version, and want to play the bigger versions like Mario Kart 7 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Which in turn leads them to Nintendo's hardware.
Once you ignore the vocal people on the internet who slam everything, you kinda realize that this is a fun game. It has flaws to be sure, but Nintendo will iron those out over time. Once this game gets true online multiplayer, I expect this game's popularity will explode.
Played it and it’s a pretty good game. Still can’t get over Nintendo releasing games on rival platforms though there’s now hope for them releasing games on PlayStation and Xbox/PC.
@wazlon Err....that was a given since 2016...... And Switch Lite is a dedicated handheld console, as all the handwringing articles here about "there's no way to TV out except a 1980's boombox" made annoyingly clear. While you may or may not like the form factor of Switch lite - you asked for a dedicated handheld, and Nintendo obliged....launching a new one just last week!
It's not a completely separate software platform, but that was the entire point of the Switch platform from the beginning, to not ever do that again. No company can run 2 completely separate platforms and keep them both properly supported at the same time. Not Nintendo, the king of handhelds who stopped by merging console and handheld together. Not Sony who failed miserably and stopped by just no longer selling a handheld platform at all. And not Microsoft who never even started selling a handheld stating specifically the reason being that Nintendo really controls that market already.
It's not that "handheld style games" won't continue to be made, FE:3H, Luigi's Mansion 3, Sushi Striker, etc demonstrate that, it's just that they live side by side on the same hardware as games like Splatoon and Assassin's Creed.
3DS was a miracle. Analysts were convinced it was doomed with the rise of mobile. They were wrong, temporarily, but sales were certainly showing a hit compared to DS due to the rise of mobile. It makes more sense for Nintendo to not try to make "portable gaming" an ether-or proposition of "buy ours instead of mobile" and do it the way they're doing it. A hybrid/shared platform that does console, does portable, and then sell mobile games for that crossover market.
So, "Yes, this does mean there's not going to be a dedicated platform that does only mobile games and nothing else" is one answer. And "What cave are you living in when a new dedicated handheld just launched less than a week ago?" is the other answer
It makes being a Nintendo gamer a lot easier (and cheaper) - buy one machine, and buy whatever games for it, and play them whenever. Much easier than WiiU+3DS era of having two separate piles and allocating which games you play when depending on if you're playing home or portable. Better for Nintendo, better for us. Better for 3rd parties. Better for everyone except the people that want "super powerful home console like PS4" from Nintendo.
With the rise of streaming and mobile the real fear should be that Nintendo's future lies with not having any hardware platform at all and exists as a subscription service to play Nintendo games on any hardware, and/or microtransactions like mobile." But "death of handhelds" is greatly overstated in the Switch era. Technically speaking Switch is far more a "dedicated handheld" than it is a "dedicated console."
@NEStalgia: I agree with you, especially "With the rise of streaming and mobile the real fear should be that Nintendo's future lies with not having any hardware platform at all and exists as a subscription service to play Nintendo games on any hardware, and/or microtransactions like mobile.".
@SpicyBurrito16
Same, I think a lot of people at my school were also playing Mario Kart Tour
FYI I was also playing
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...