'Mario Kart 8' Has Become the Best-Selling Racing Game in U.S. History

Mama mia! Mario Kart 8 is officially the best-selling racing game in U.S. history after beating out, well, another Mario Kart installment for the throne.

The game, including both the original Wii U version of Mario Kart 8 and the Nintendo Switch’s Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, has now taken the title from the ever-successful Mario Kart Wii, as reported by Mat Piscatella of the NPD Group.

Piscatella didn’t share any specific numbers related to U.S. sales, but the Wii U version has sold 8.45 million units globally from its 2014 release to September 2020, while the Switch installment has sold 33.41 million units globally from its 2017 release to late 2020, according to IGN. Mario Kart Wii, which released in 2008, has sold 37.38 million global units as of September 2020.

The news came as part of The NPD Group’s breakdown of March 2021 game sales, which also highlighted that Sony’s PlayStation 5 became the fastest-selling console in U.S. history by both unit and dollar sales.

It’s been a pretty big month for everyone’s favorite Italian plumber, though. Earlier this month, it was reported that a sealed and graded copy of Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Entertainment System, the original 1985 version, had sold for an impressive $660,000 in an online auction. The man who bought it apparently kept it in an office desk for 35 years untouched without much thought, which surely seemed to pay off.