Mario Kart 8 sold through 81% of initial shipment in Japan
Mario Kart 8 is off to a solid start in Japan. Nintendo’s racer sold 326,000 copies in its first week, with a 80.9 percent sell-through rate. While this is a bit less than Mario Kart 7 (420,000 units), sales tracker Media Create mentions that this could be due to the timing of release and the number of hardware units sold prior.
Mario Kart 8 experienced the best opening week of any Wii U game in Japan thus far by a significant margin. It surpassed New Super Mario Bros. U, which sold 164,000 units in its first week.
With Mario Kart 8’s launch, the Wii U sold about 20,000 units. That’s quite a bit more than the 9,000 units it sold the week prior, though it’s not the massive boost that some may have hoped for. Still, Mario Kart 8’s launch week was the first time Wii U was in the top spot since the console released with major titles. Media Create mentions that although Nintendo tends to release good titles throughout the year, new users might not be drawn to the Wii U until after summer vacation.
