According to Polygon, in a report on a post by Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe outsold Mario Kart World in the month of July. Seems like newer isn’t necessarily better.
Is this development surprising? Not exactly. Given the number of legacy Switch consoles currently scampering around out there (over 152 million units sold to date, roughly), there’s a much larger pool of Nintendo gamers that are exclusively able to buy Mario Kart 8 Deluxe than there are Switch 2 owners who can purchase a copy of the flagship Mario Kart World.
What’s actually surprising is that there are original Switch owners who are only now getting into Deluxe, which came out way back in 2017. Granted, the game is packed with excellent tracks, tons of characters and plenty of solid paid DLC, so you’re getting a lot of value for your $60+. Tack on a few extra bucks for the bonus content, and Deluxe will keep you busy for years to come.
I wouldn’t doubt if this is also because people are still buying the older Switch due to its relative affordability, especially when compared to the Switch 2’s hefty $500 price tag. I unabashedly love my Switch 2, but I’d argue it hasn’t made a compelling case for mass adoption quite yet, even though the Switch 2 is selling way faster than the original Switch did in its heyday. Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza are both excellent, no doubt, but the average gamer probably hasn’t taken notice.
That said, I do prefer Deluxe to World any day of the week, and I know I’m not alone in this sentiment. Perhaps the fact that World hasn’t yet won as many hearts as Deluxe earned over the years is contributing to the sales imbalance, or maybe it’s because World doesn’t look or play all that different from Deluxe, and Deluxe is cheaper.
If you play a ton of video games, you simply can’t ignore World’s improved visuals, more intricate tracks and trick-laden, enhanced gameplay. But at first glance, I can imagine casual consumers not even realizing World and Deluxe are separate games. I think World is probably worth the $50 I paid for it, because it came bundled with my Switch 2, but $80 standalone? Absolutely not.
Even after 30 pretty enjoyable hours with the game, Mario Kart World feels pretty hollow to me. The controls are predictably tight and the game is objectively fun to play, but the open world feels superfluous, the character unlock system seems silly and random, there’s no Diddy Kong Racing-esque Adventure Mode (Free Roam is a complete joke) and the tracks just simply aren’t as interesting as Deluxe’s. Knockout Tour is cool, but it’s not enough.
World reads as a blueprint for a more expansive experience, and I have little doubt that Nintendo will eventually add much more content to the game. But as it stands, it’s easy to understand why Deluxe continues to sell a ton of copies, in this case exceeding those of its cutting-edge successor.
