I’ll admit, I was skeptical about Mario Kart 8 Deluxe being the ideal game to mark the Nintendo Switch’s second hit. But then I remember that we’re dealing with Nintendo fans, and double dipping has become standard protocol after years of abuse from the Virtual Console. And also, it’s Mario Kart, Nintendo’s consistently best-selling series for the past decade.

Amazon made me a believer yesterday, and now Nintendo is all but confirming the news. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a bonafide hit. The company declared that the game is the fastest-selling that the franchise has ever seen out of the gate, and it has a lot of life ahead of it thanks to it coming early in the console’s lifetime.

With more than 459,000 combined packaged and digital sales in the U.S. on launch day alone (April 28), Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch system is the fastest-selling game in the long-running Mario Kart series. The previous record holder for the highest first-day sales in the franchise was Mario Kart Wii, with U.S. sales of approximately 433,900 when it launched in 2008. The solid sales numbers for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe equate to an attach rate of 45 percent – meaning nearly one in two Nintendo Switch owners in the U.S. purchased a copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the first day it was available. To date, more than 2.7 million Nintendo Switch systems have been sold globally.

I already gave my spiel on this yesterday

Again, this shouldn’t have surprised us one bit, as I pointed out in the article I wrote yesterday. Mario Kart always sells consoles, and it will fulfill this important backup role alongside The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as the next “must own” Switch game. I’m just tired of writing “Deluxe” all the time.

The Switch’s year-1 is already starting to feel a lot like the Nintendo 64’s. A small launch pool, a slow paced stream of Nintendo hits, a killer app launch title that redefines a franchise, a Mario Kart within the first month. All it needs is its own third-party exclusive like GoldenEye 007, and the circle will be complete.

And Mischief Makers. Every Nintendo console should have a Mischief Makers in the first year. Shake! Shake!

See at Amazon

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