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Mario Kart World has already sold more physical copies than Mario Kart 8 in Japan

If you ever had a doubt that the Wii U flopped, this shows just how poorly the console performed.
Jonas Mäki Editor Sweden 18 July 2025

It's no secret that the Wii U was a fail parade, nor that its best-selling game was Mario Kart 8. Nevertheless, it's worth reporting that after just six weeks on the market, Mario Kart World has sold more physical copies than the eighth game did for the Wii U.

It's also worth remembering that digital sales were not nearly as prevalent during the Wii U era, which makes the result even more impressive. According to Famitsu (via My Nintendo News) a total of 1,310,444 million physical Mario Kart 8 copies were sold for Wii U in Japan and Mario Kart World now stands at 1,365,072 physical copies.

Editor Sweden Jonas Mäki has written for Gamereactor since 2002, becoming an editor in 2007. He covers the video game industry across news, releases and the business side, with a particular interest in sales figures and where the industry is heading.
Full profile Gamereactor author since 2007 · 12,193 published articles
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