For the first time since its 2017 debut, the consistently well-selling Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is no longer one of the top 20 best selling games in the United States for a given month.
Okay, that’s a bit of a word salad – but it’s a notable dethroning. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe first released in April of 2017, when it naturally topped The NPD Group’s (now Circana’s) list of the best-selling games in the US for that month. Ever since that month, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has appeared in the top 20 best selling games in the US, which Circana tracks by dollar sales.
But as GamesIndustry.biz noticed today, for the month of October, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was gone. Its reign in the top 20 lasted a whopping 78 consecutive months, which feels like it must be some kind of record. We reached out to Circana for comment, and analyst Mat Piscatella confirmed GamesIndustry’s discovery. While he couldn’t confirm it was an all-time record for longest consecutive run in the top 20 (he’d have to look all the way back to 1995 to be absolutely sure), Piscatella said “technically it likely is”. But he also noted that if Grand Theft Auto 5 sales were still included in the chart “it may be a different story.” Take-Two stopped reporting digital sales to the NPD group in 2020, causing GTA 5 and multiple annual sports franchises to disappear from its charts.
It’s possible, even likely, that Mario Kart makes a return to the top in a later month. Its departure in October was likely impacted by the sheer number of brand new releases cracking the top 20 that month, including Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (#1), Super Mario Bros. Wonder (#2), Assassin’s Creed: Mirage (#3), UFC 5 (#7), NHL 24 (#8), Sonic Superstars (#9), Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 (#12), Forza Motorsport (#17), and Lords of the Fallen (#20). That’s a lot of debut games to beat for a six-year-old game, nevermind that it’s also competing against other recent releases that are still selling well like Madden, Hogwarts Legacy, and Starfield. Given that Mario Kart 8 wasn’t just in the top 20, but actually in the top 10 as recently as August, it’s not shocking that it took an overwhelming month of new releases to push it down the roster.
What’s worth noting too is that it’s entirely possible Mario Kart 8 technically is still in the top 20. Just. Secretly. Nintendo does not report digital sales to Circana, meaning that Mario Kart 8 has stayed in the top 20 for six years on sheer strength of physical sales alone. That will shock no one who has observed the Switch bundle Nintendo loves to offer up for Black Friday year after year, but it’s still an incredible feat. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe also remains Nintendo’s best-selling Nintendo Switch title at 57 million units sold life to date, and the second-best selling Nintendo game ever just after Wii Sports (82.9 million units).
Whatever the case, it seems likely we’ll see Mario Kart 8 Deluxe bounce back into the top 20 again soon. And with Wave 6 of the DLC out earlier this month and another Black Friday sale imminent, Mario Kart 8 isn’t going anywhere…at least not until Nintendo commits to the mythical Mario Kart 9.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
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