Mario Kart Tour races to 129m downloads in first month

It couldn't blue shell its way past Pokemon Go, though.

Corinne Reichert Senior Editor

Corinne Reichert (she/her) grew up in Sydney, Australia and moved to California in 2019. She holds degrees in law and communications, and currently writes news, analysis and features for CNET across the topics of electric vehicles, broadband networks, mobile devices, big tech, artificial intelligence, home technology and entertainment. In her spare time, she watches soccer games and F1 races, and goes to Disneyland as often as possible.

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I've been covering technology and mobile for 12 years, first as a telecommunications reporter and assistant editor at ZDNet in Australia, then as CNET's West Coast head of breaking news, and now in the Thought Leadership team.

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Corinne Reichert

Oct. 28, 2019 3:31 p.m. PT

Mario Kart Tour is out on Android and iOS.
Érika García / CNET

Mario Kart Tour has already reached 129.3 million downloads on the Google Play store and Apple App Store, a Monday report by Sensor Tower says. It was outraced only by Pokemon Go, which amassed 163 million downloads in its first 30 days and has since crossed the 1 billion threshold.

Nintendo announced the Mario Kart mobile game back in January 2018, with an original launch date of March 2019. However, the game was then delayed until summer 2019 while it was being fine tuned, eventually launching Sept. 25.

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It's free to play on Android and iOS , but the Sensor Tower data -- reported earlier Monday by The Hollywood Reporter -- shows Mario Kart Tour generating $37.4 million of in-game revenue since its release.

Mario Kart Tour is Nintendo's most successful mobile game release in terms of downloads -- it's trailed by Super Mario Run 's 21.8 million -- but is second to Fire Emblem Heroes' revenue, which raked in $67.6 million in its first month, according to Sensor Tower.

Nintendo didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.