It's always fascinating to see what's bringing in the big bucks over at Nintendo. While The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is doing gangbusters in theaters, earning $940 million at the box office, the company is shifting plenty of games. There are the usual outliers like Pokémon, but one game is the reigning champ. Put your crash helmets on and prepare your banana peels for the tracks, because Mario Kart World is taking home the gold for the Nintendo Switch 2.
At this time of year, we always get a glimpse of how developers are doing after the end of the last financial year. Looking into the new Nintendo investor report, here's what you need to know out of the gate: Mario Kart World is the Nintendo Switch 2's biggest hit so far. Following the console's launch in June last year, the new Mario game has sold 14.7 million copies worldwide. It remains the handheld's best-selling title by a long shot. Trailing behind it, Donkey Kong Bananza sits in second place, with a respectable 4.52 million copies.
Coming in for the third-place bronze medal, Pokémon Pokopia isn't too far off from catching up to DKB, with four million units sold in the five weeks since it launched. What's equally impressive is that the re-releases of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen have collectively sold four million copies, proving that there's still a massive appetite to see classic titles on the Switch 2. Sure, there's a wealth of older hits to revisit through a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, but owning a native port is different gravy.
It isn't just the Nintendo Switch 2 that's basking in all the glory, though. Nintendo's report confirms that ten years later, the original Switch model shipped another 3.8 million consoles. Although new Switch games are leaving the lesser-powered handheld behind to a degree, Nintendo adds that titles such as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Nintendo Switch Sports, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Super Mario Party Jamboree continued to drive steady sales alongside newer releases like Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2.
Putting that into perspective for the latter, Super Mario Galaxy 2 sold 2.76 million copies, while Super Mario Galaxy sold 2.60 million copies after its October re-release. To cap things off with a bang, across both consoles, Nintendo shifted 136.91 million software units. Overall annual sales soared past ¥2.31 trillion/$14.6 billion, with most revenue coming from outside Japan, while noting a profit of ¥424 billion/$2.7 billion for the fiscal year. That marks a roughly 38% increase compared to Nintendo's 2024 revenue of ¥1.67 trillion/$11.5 billion.
Despite a strong release, there's been notable backlash toward Mario Kart World on social media over the past few months. From complaints to its open-world structure to steering away from the vibes of its predecessor, you may have decided to give it a miss. If that's the case, you can check out our Mario Kart World review to see whether it's worth a try.