The data is in, and we're happy to confirm that English gamers have been declared the best Mario Kart players the world has ever seen. So that's that.
Yes, data-focused gaming publisher Kwalee has put together a study taking a close look at more than 16,000 different games, looking into top-ranking achievements and more to see which countries came out on top. Here's how all the data was compiled:
Using data available online totalling over 42,000 achievements that range from the quickest completion times to high scores, Kwalee ranked countries by how many achievements residents of each had scored, divided by population size to give fair scoring.
According to the data, players from England are the best at Mario Kart, Rock Band and Tekken; Scotland takes Crash Bandicoot; Northern Ireland is the best at Sonic; Ireland is the best at Super Mario; Netherlands has the best Pokémon and Donkey Kong players (and it's also the best at Goat Simulator, so there's something to tell the grandkids); Japan wins at Animal Crossing and Final Fantasy; the US is the best at Pac-Man and a whole bunch of sports games; and Canada is the best at GoldenEye 007 and Ecco the Dolphin. Phew.
Despite all of that, adding up all of the data across all games monitored reveals this final lineup of the most-skilled gaming countries. Is your home nation on this list?
The Top 20 Most Skilled Gaming Countries
- Finland
- Canada
- Sweden
- New Zealand
- Australia
- United States of America
- Netherlands
- Scotland
- Ireland
- France
- Germany
- England
- Austria
- Denmark
- Switzerland
- Latvia
- Japan
- Estonia
- Norway
- Belgium
If you were unaware, a good chunk of the Nintendo Life team is based in England so we'd like to think we're hugely responsible for that Mario Kart statistic. We'd also like to see this data shoehorned into a new version of our national anthem, but we can't see that happening to be honest.
Did your country make it into that top 20? Tell us below.
Further Reading:
[source kwalee.com]
Comments 60
What, Japan isn't top? I'm shocked.
Scotland in 8th. Nice!
But who's best at Smash? That's the real question.
...Oh who am I kidding. It's Japan.
But the real question is: who's the best in bed?
“Japan wins at Animal Crossing”
Not trying to take anything away from Japan here, but... err, how do you win at Animal Crossing?
Is that where the majority of the world’s Raymonds are based? Because if I’ve got my sources right, ‘having Raymond’ seems to be the only agreed upon metric for success.
Yay. Admittedly 90% of the UK Mario Kart skill probably rests in Sami Cetin...
I’ll take 8th. Not really sure how you measure how good we are at Crash but never mind. I’m fairly certain that the copious amounts of Irn-Bru I’ve been consuming in lockdown is making my gaming skills significantly worse, it’s kinda giving me the shakes.
"Northern Island"? Any particular island?! 😂
Canadians are really nice AND are really good at video ganes!?!
Oh i guess you guys never meet Niksi
Canada being the best at Ecco the Dolphin made me laugh.
Oh I get why England is the best at Mario Kart, it’s because they are used to driving on the wrong side of the road. I’m just joking, but US being best at sports games because we are forced watch sports when we go over to relatives houses. Really Uncle Ree can we watch somthing else, please?!?!?
@RazumikhinPG me. I’m an excellent sleeper
Mass unemployment in Scotland gives them plenty of time to hammer the English at video games.
Just realised we beat England. Yep, I’m not letting this go, we’re sh*te at football and gave away that bloody game where Leigh Griffiths scored those two free kicks from miles out. Get it up ye sassanachs 🏴🏴 😂😂
Nothing for Wales? que pending sheep jokes!
Finland is the strongest gaming country? haha
Enjoying reading the comments on this!! 😀
You guys can't even drive on the right side of the dang road! 😂
Odd how Scotland, England, Wales etc. are counted as seperate countries.
Might as well split up Germany, Belgium and Japan too.
The statisticians are British then?
Come on England! My shoulders are getting sore carrying you guys!
(/s)
@Kalmaro Adults don't really play games in Japan. They will play with their family or parties, but not your typical gamer who plays a lot of games by themselves.
Well, turn off that steering assist antenna I see you’ve got there and maybe you guys aren’t as good as you think. I refuse to accept these findings as fact. I’ll take you all on!
Love, Los Angeles
@mesome713 That's fair.
@nessisonett I'm pretty sure Irn-Bru isn't for oral consumption but rather for sticking your wallpaper on the wall!
@RileyR We are different countries. The UK is a union of nations but we’re all individual countries in our own right.
Well i must be letting the team down. Took me a good year to unlock gold Mario and had a terrible online record. Has been a while since i played. May go a few laps this evening and bask in the glory earned by my country men and women.
If I had participated Brazil would come between the top 5, being modest. No living soul can beat me in that game. So that's that.
Wow, Scotland is up quite high. I bet I let down the national average.
@RileyR United Kingdom is as the name suggests, a kingdom. Consisting of 4 countries. Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Britain is the name of the main island. It can be confusing for people not from here.
Monty Python were right, Finland does have it all.
We are also the best at making Mario maker 2 levels.
Canada... best at Ecco the Dolphin? They still playing Mega Drive over there? Lol
I think these stats have a Eurocentric bias. If you go by actual tournament winners and seeds it seems like Japan, Korea, and USA (usually) take turns dominating the fighting genre from year to year, but on the website they have Japan, wales, ireland, Canada, and Sweden? How many Evo wins does Sweden have?
EDIT: Looking at the methodology it says they only used speedruns. So this list isn't good for the more "competitive" aspects of games.
Congrats to all you UK Mario-Karters!
The US is best at Pac-Man? I'm from the US (born & raised), and own an original stand-up PacMan arcade machine that still works(!) and even I'm surprised at the data.
Probably because they have more people understanding the guides on how to hack and cheat.
Japan is the best at Animal crossing how does that even make since there is literally no competition in Animal crossing so how is this.
I seriously don't think achievements in game make for the best gamers. Many achievements are accomplished only once and or by luck. That doesn't make you the better player.
Considering how absurdly brutal Japanese players are at Mario Kart 8 Deluxe online....I'm surprised they didn't take top spot.
Neat.
"ranked countries by how many achievements residents of each had scored, divided by population size"
Well this skews things. Unfortunately, this to me is just another statistic that says what the creators of the study want it to say by looking at selective data.
It makes sense that Britons would be good at driving in chaotic environments. English roads are a bewildering mess.
Great to see Canada up there for Goldeneye. Despite how British the game was, we can give the Brits a run for their money.
How do they judge all of those games that aren't online? Me and my friends were awesome at Goldeneye with many many hours of multiplayer matches and I unlocked all the cheats which took some serious manipulation of the N64 pad at times
I am from Indonesia.
I'm expert in Dance Dance Revolution Arcade games. Have been playing DDR for almost 17 years old.
I am best at Rhythm games (DDR, Para Para Paradise, etc) and Life Simulation games (The Sims, Animal Crossing, Dragon Quest Builders series).
@Stocksy Would be a funny joke, except Scotland consistently has one of the lowest rates of unemployment in the UK, and almost always lower than England as a whole.
Nice try though.
@RileyR This comment betrays a level of ignorance that is quite shocking. I can only hope you are not British.
@Perpderp ok braveheart enjoy your free prescriptions and university fees
@Stocksy If I were Scottish and/or lived in Scotland I would! Alas I am neither of those.
I'd imagine the rampant obesity in the United States has a lot to do with why we're so proficient at Pac-Man. He speaks to us on a fundamental level.
Hell yeah, us Americans are best at a game where you eat a lot!....wait
Haha Ecco the dolphin? That's ancient. Guess (other than Rock Band) it means the older system titles? Tbf Mario Kart 7 was like the only time I went up against Japanese players online and beat them regularly, so it is believable. Then again, Mario Kart is mostly just luck of items.
@Stocksy why do you talk about free prescriptions and no university fee's like they're a bad thing?
That headline is very vague.. i was thinking English speakers, not people from the UK.
It's the Scandinavian part of the Scottish DNA which got us in the top ten (hence why Finland and Sweden are also up there). We're naturally good at hacking, slashing and running across plains whilst avoiding enemy fire.
My homeland is at number 1! Torille!
@TheGoof Because it's not UK, it's specifically 'English' players, from England that are top, not UK
"According to the data, players from England"
UK isn't just England.
Where is Wales? The master race.
of course Brits wrote this
If this was solely based on Splatoon 2, Japan #1... by a mile! haha
In my country, Romania, people are crazy for... FIFA 20.
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