Nintendo’s forgotten Mario Kart game is getting its first new content in years

Mario Kart Tour, the mobile game from Nintendo and DeNA, is getting its first update in years this month, the pair have announced.

Tour was officially wound down in 2023, with only existing content rotations coming to the game since. However, in a major surprise, it was confirmed on Friday that a new season of content is coming to the game.

The Sunshine Tour will roll out starting on July 22, with content designed to celebrate the recent release of console game Mario Kart World on Nintendo Switch 2.

The “special campaign” will include two new outfits, which see Mario and Luigi donning their nostalgic Famicom race gear, and four karts from Mario Kart World in different colors.

Nintendo and DeNA announced in September 2023 that, four years after launch, they would stop creating new content for Mario Kart Tour. The news coincided with the release of Switch title Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s sixth and final DLC wave, which shared many new course releases with the mobile title.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk7EhC-s5vI&ab_channel=NintendoMobile

Since it started making mobile games in 2016, Nintendo has wound down most of its releases, and currently, mobile makes up a small portion of its annual revenue.

Of the eight major mobile games the company has launched to date, it has ended support for at least five, most recently Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.

Fire Emblem Heroes is Nintendo’s most successful mobile game by a long distance, according to Appmagic data published by Mobilegamer.biz last year.

Mario Kart Tour overtook Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp as Nintendo’s second biggest earner on mobile, having earned around $243m from 230m downloads, and around $2m per month.