The festive period is a great time for games, isn’t it? Generally, we all have a bit more time to actually play them, and you’ve always got the old faithful Winter and New Year Sales to swindle you out of that hard-earned cash, on games you’re definitely going to get round to playing. You’re not fooling me, reader, and you can’t hide from the truth. That backlog is doomed to grow forever, and you know it.
Anyway, what I’m saying is, a lot of people like to buy games around Christmas - and in 2021, no boxed game was bought more than the Switch’s old faithful racing title, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. You know, the one from 2017. Who needs new releases, anyway?
What would happen if you took to the streets as Mario in real life? This, apparently...
Up to Christmas Day, it was actually FIFA 22 sat in the top spot - and while I can’t personally endorse that as an excellent choice, it was at the very least a pretty new game. The Switch itself though was one of the top-selling Christmas products this year, so it’s fair to assume that a lot of people ended up with one under their tree. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is an incredibly obvious choice to start out anyone’s Switch library, hence the last minute surge of sales to finish off the year.
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Others in the final top 10 best-selling boxed games of the year - in the UK, this is - include Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Pokémon Brilliant Diamond (no love for Shining Pearl, sad times), and Spider-Man: Miles Morales. It’s lovely to know that there’s plenty of people with good taste.
It’s genuinely hard to believe that there were enough Switch owners left in the country who didn’t already own Mario Kart to make it top the charts - where did they all come from?! Then again, perhaps I'm being hypocritical, because I never actually picked it up myself - I really thought Mario Kart 9 would be out by now, and it’s starting to get me slightly worried, I can’t lie. Maybe this year?
In related content, if you're a fan of MK8, check out our absolutely 100% correct ranking of its tracks.
Featured Image Credit: Nintendo, EATopics: Mario, Mario Kart, Nintendo, Nintendo Switch