Mario Kart

A lot of people like to work with music playing in the background – it's easy to see how a favourite tune can inspire you to increased productivity or get you through a particularly tough day. However, a new craze has surfaced online which is based around using Mario Kart's more strident songs to encourage people to work faster.

As reported by Polygon, a TikTok video went viral recently which showed the effects of Mario Kart's "invincibility star" tune on the essay-writing prowess of one individual. "My stress levels went [up] but so did my word count,” was the caption.

This appears to the origin point for what Polygon calls a "boom" in people listening to Mario Kart music online – so much so that songs from the game are now entering the streaming charts:

Interestingly, Polygon also notes that most of the songs in question have been uploaded by third-parties and not Nintendo itself – which means the company is potentially missing out on a big growth area.

It's also noted that while this strident and tense music may well inspire people to type faster, it doesn't necessarily mean what they're putting down on the page is any good. Still, it's clearly working for some people:

Do you find that working to intense music helps your productivity? Let us know with a comment, which we want you to type out whilst listening to the drowning music from Sonic the Hedgehog.

[source polygon.com]