Nintendo has reported at their 74th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders that Mario Kart 8, the latest iteration of the widely beloved franchise, has already sold over two million copies worldwide since its release one month ago. Nintendo confirmed the news to IGN via an official announcement from Genyo Takeda.
It’s not much of a surprise that Mario Kart 8 is doing so well, given the extremely positive reviews the game has received. Den of Geek called it “Nintendo’s magnum opus,” and said it “doesn’t necessarily reinvent the wheel, but instead exemplifies what Nintendo does best: pick a beloved game from their catalog, spruce it up with a paint job, throw in just enough new ideas and minor tweaks to make it fresh, and ship it out ot the masses.” IGN gave the game a 9.0/10.0, taking note of the gravity-defying traks and better item balance than past games.
At this rate, Mario Kart 8 will soon become the Wii U’s best selling game. Currently, New Super Mario Bros. U is the Wii U’s top seller with over 4.16 million copies sold, followed by Nintendo Land’s 3.09 million. Super Mario 3D World–the Wii U’s second best game, in my opinion–is no. 3 with 2.17 million copies sold. With numbers like these, the gaming community might have to start calling Nintendo’s latest console the “the struggling Wii U.”
The Wii U actually has the highest ranked exclusive titles out of all of the new gen systems, beating the Xbox One and PS4. Generally, Nintendo’s formula is to keep releasing Marios and Zeldas. And if Zeldarim–Zelda Wii U–has anything to say about it, the Wii U is going to do just fine. We also found out that Nintendo has a new IP incoming sometime soon named Splatoon, which basically throws the company’s name into the first person shooter market. Sort of. Point being–Nintendo is going to be just fine, guys!