Polygon examined the last 22 years of Mario Kart games sales. But even that wouldn't make Mario Kart 8 the smash hit Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart Wii became. The company expects to sell another 3.6 million Wii U consoles by the end of the fiscal year, according to Nintendo's consolidated financial statement, bringing the number of Wii U consoles on the market to 9.77 million. as the Wii U's 'two main drivers' for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2015.
In a recent financial report, Nintendo cited Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. And that's certainly one of the things Nintendo hopes will happen. The only way Mario Kart 8 could sell more would be by driving gamers to buy new consoles. That's because there are only 6.17 million Wii U consoles in gamers' homes, and that's fewer than the number of copies that all but one previous Mario Kart game sold. The Mario Kart series has long been a sales leader, ranking as the second-best selling game on Nintendo's last three hardware platforms, but even if every current Wii U owner bought the next installment, Mario Kart 8, it would still be the second-worst selling game in franchise history.
