• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Mario Kart 8 Boosts Wii U Sales by 4.1x in NOA week over week

FoneBone

Member
That's hilarious!

I'm guessing the higher attach rate vs MK7 is due to MK7 being a launch title. Still, very impressive statistics.

Mario Kart 7 came out 8 months after launch... earlier in its platform's lifecycle than MK8, yes, but calling it a "launch title" is still a stretch.
 

Aostia

El Capitan Todd
good to know!
they had a x2 boost in Japan, a x6 boost in UK and a x10 boost in France from what we know, so this is quite good. obviously being the game released on May 30 (I think), the boost will be split in two NPD months, if the game will continue helping the HW
Nothing mind blowing but still something...
 

Lingitiz

Member
Good to see those sales coming up. The Wii U isn't going to be a crazy success, but between MK and Smash I'm sure they can still salvage things and end up doing alright.

I would hopefully like to see Wii U get a normal console lifespan and not get cut short after Zelda releases next year.
 

dolabla

Member
I am pulling for Wii U honestly. It never really did anything wrong at launch. The 3DS had the issue of price.

Same here. I'm pulling for them real hard. Only thing it did wrong was there wasn't many games to play. That's completely changed now. The current lineup/future lineup is legit. I love my Wii U. It's been getting way more playing time than my PS4.
 

Grisby

Member
I bought one. Haven't actually played a game yet on it as I'm waiting for ZombiU but I watched ninty's e3 on it. Was kinda neat with the game pad and all (I don't own a iPad or anything).
 

tebunker

Banned
Mario Kart 8's debut (3 days) - 450,000
Attach rate - 18%
Wii U sales after MK8's debut - 2,500,000

...I think?
Yes that is the correct math, so can someone who knows what us ltd was at end of April math that out for us? It will put us in the May eom range for units
 

Skiesofwonder

Walruses, camels, bears, rabbits, tigers and badgers.
Hopefully they can carry this momentum from MK8 & E3 until Smash hits. The problem is that outside of Wii Sports Club, they really don't have anything else of note until Hyrule Warriors hits in September.
 

Leatherface

Member
So, my friend, who I've been sending propaganda to all week after getting a Wii U, went out to buy one himself yesterday after seeing a gif of the new Zelda game. Hook line and sinker. Haha. Anyway, he had a hard time finding one initially. Everywhere he went, including Bestbuy and Gamestop, were sold out. Hope that's a sign of the impact MK has made. For me it has been a system seller. MK8 is a masterpiece as far as I'm concerned. Anyway, love me Wii U. The time to buy is now!!!
 

AdanVC

Member
Dat Luigi death stare bump! Jokes aside, totally well desserved, such an addictive, beautiful and fun game. So amazed that it did better than MK7 on it's first week! Let's just hope this is a sign of good times heading for Wii U.
 
My wife just bought me a refurbished Wii U deluxe from Nintendo's site for $200 and then picked up Mario Kart 8 for me today for father's day!

definitely helped me want one.. plus hyrule warriors coming up.
 

Lingitiz

Member
I keep thinking that Nintendo underestimated Matio Kart and overestimated NSMB, in terms of sales.




Wait a minute, I will ask the mellard duck.

It definitely seems like they misread how the market would respond to NSMB. They released two of them too close together so people weren't necessarily hungry for another one.

I think they know exactly what MK8 and Smash can do for them though. It's why we haven't seen a ton of panic moves from them like drastic price drops or new SKUs.
 

sörine

Banned
That's hilarious!

I'm guessing the higher attach rate vs MK7 is due to MK7 being a launch title. Still, very impressive statistics.
Your logic is backwards, the earlier in a platform's lifecycle a game launches the easier it is to manage a higher attach rate.
 

Ludist210

Member
Great news, and well deserved! I've already unlocked everything (sans the last glider part, need more coins) and three-starred every cup, and I still want to play more and more!
 
Good for Nintendo, but let's see if this does anything substantial to reverse the WiiU fortunes. I don't think it will, but you never know.
 

w00zey

Member
Not to be a dick but quadrupling really low sales is definitely good but let us not blow this out of proportion until it quadruples sales for the next 6-8 months.
 
Mario Kart 7 came out 8 months after launch... earlier in its platform's lifecycle than MK8, yes, but calling it a "launch title" is still a stretch.

It also, unlike MK8, came out during the holidays, so MK8 resulting in a larger week-over-week relative sales boost is less surprising and therefore less relevant than Nintendo would like you to believe.

Whenever a first party only talks hardware sales in relative terms, you should be suspicious. This is no exception.
 
D

Deleted member 125677

Unconfirmed Member
Extremely deserved. The game in online crack, plays like a dream, looks amazing and is fun as hell
 

w00zey

Member
Great news, and well deserved! I've already unlocked everything (sans the last glider part, need more coins) and three-starred every cup, and I still want to play more and more!

Man you are much better than me. I am working on 100cc but have almost every regular part (I have the kids farming coins in multiplayer) and am so frustrated with the normal mario kart dynamic of getting blasted on lap 3 3/4 of the way through the track that I don't know if I have the patience to keep doing it. Online is pretty awesome though. Hopped on real quick and found a friend and was able to join him.
 
Yes that is the correct math, so can someone who knows what us ltd was at end of April math that out for us? It will put us in the May eom range for units

I have the US LTD ~2.35M at the end of April. ~150k in May seems too high... My monthly numbers are probably off by a couple thousand here and there though.
 

Korosenai

Member
Mario Kart 8 is both the first wii u game ive bought and played since pikmin 3 launch, so it makes sense.

Edit: or maybe wonderful 101, not sure. Ill have to check my activity log later.
 
Wow, Brawl practically doubled those numbers. And no, I don't think the massive Wii Fit demographic bought too many copies of Brawl.
All you have to do is look at the software sales of Nintendo's stalwart franchises to see that Wii's massive popularity wasn't exclusively fueled by the Wii Sports/Wii Fit crowd. SMG, SMG2, Twilight Princess, DKCR, Brawl and Mario Kart were all big hits and outsold their Gamecube predecessors.

The console being so cheap made it an easy sell to gamers even though its third party support wasn't great. Those gamers were probably expecting/hoping Wii U to be similar, which is why you see the "wait until it's $199" line so often.
 
I have the US LTD ~2.35M at the end of April. ~150k in May seems too high... My monthly numbers are probably off by a couple thousand here and there though.

Yep, the tally as of April for the 3 current gen consoles in the US are as follows:-

Code:
LTD as of April 2014:

1) PS4 - 3.11 million (+0.47 million from XBO, +0.76 million from Wii U) ~200k 
2) XBO - 2.64 million (+0.29 million from Wii U) ~110k
3) Wii U - 2.35 million ~50k

Now whether or not this increase would be enough to tip the Wii U over the Xbone for May in the US is the question.
 

tebunker

Banned
I have the US LTD ~2.35M at the end of April. ~150k in May seems too high... My monthly numbers are probably off by a couple thousand here and there though.
Well at least we can now ballpark say 90k to 150k which is a huge range but puts a more reasonable 100 to 125 k in sight which would be good for them especially if they can get to the fall with that momentum
 

FoneBone

Member
I'm honestly not trying to troll here, but is a 4X increase really that impressive (assuming weekly sales prior to that were in the same range as in April?)
 
I just ordered a refurbished Wii U from the Nintendo store. I love Mario Kart and wanted 8, but just wanted to wait for E3 to know that there are more Wii U titles coming in the next year or two that interest me. Captain Toad, Splatoon, Zelda, Bayonetta 1/2 and even Devil's Third sold me. It'll be a MK8 machine that occasionally gets some other fun titles

Hopefully the console gets a good push from the upcoming titles and is supported past 2015
 

oatmeal

Banned
Really hoping that they continue to support it. There are a lot of tweaks they could make to online, as well as new courses/characters via DLC.
 

Jonboy

Member
Happy for MK. Well deserved, but man if it doesn't make me want to chuck my controller out of a window sometimes! Online drivers are brutal!

mario_kart_pie_chart.jpg
After the initial laughter and joking wore off, I really stared at that graph and tried to figure it out.

Even now, I, quite literally, have no idea what relationship they were trying to show.
 

Magnus

Member
Great news.

It still hasn't been enough to push a single one of my friends ('gamer' or otherwise) to get one; they all cite the price as being the barrier to entry. None of them wants to spend more than $200. But they're apparently all in as soon as Zelda hits...the power of that franchise, eh?
 
Top Bottom