Mario Kart Tour races ahead on first-week downloads

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Mario Kart Tour has the second best debut month ever on mobile
The question is: will it last?
Photo: Nintendo

Mario Kart Tour may be a disappointment on a critical level, but it seems to be off to a good start in terms of downloads.

According to new data from Sensor Tower, Mario Kart Tour racked up 90 million downloads in its first week. That makes it Nintendo’s fastest mobile game launch in history. Kind of appropriate for a racing game, really!

Sensor Tower’s report notes that:

“The number of downloads is six times greater than the company’s second best launch, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, which generated 14.3 million downloads in its first week. The company’s third best launch, Super Mario Run, picked up just under 13 million downloads in its debut week.”

When it comes to spending, however, things are less clear. Mario Kart Tour‘s first week player spending came in at $12.7 million. That’s behind Super Mario Run’s $16.1 million and Fire Emblem Heroes’ massive $28.2 million.

Since Nintendo was supposedly disappointed about how much money Super Mario Run earned, it would be interesting to know how the company feels about Mario Kart‘s smaller earnings — especially given how many more downloads it received.

Android made up 59.5% of downloads, while iOS made up the remaining 40.5%. However, iOS users far outweighed Android users in terms of actual spending. App Store spending made up 75.5% of gross revenue from the game — adding up to $9.6 million.

Have my views on Mario Kart Tour changed?

I’ve now had more time to play Mario Kart Tour since I published my first thoughts on the game. My opinion hasn’t really changed during that time. The game still looks and sounds like a proper Mario Kart game. However, the gameplay is where it all falls apart. The insistence on portrait mode, the bad controls, and the in-app purchase overload just adds up to a poor gaming experience.

Oh, and the difficulty levels? Nonexistent. While Mario Kart has always been careful to balance the gameplay to stop a few racers from speeding ahead, Mario Kart Tour turns this rubber-banding feature up to 11. I don’t think I’ve lost a game on Mario Kart Tour yet — and that’s not because I’m a great player. It’s because the game makes it darn near impossible to not come in first or second.

Have you played Mario Kart Tour yet? (If not, you can download it here.) What did you think of it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Source: Sensor Tower

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