Super Mario recently turned 35, and car performance brand Redex looked into Mario Kart playing habits to celebrate.
Mario Kart is a Nintendo racing game (a recent version, Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, earned a PCMag Editor’s Choice award). Redex surveyed 2,000 Brits about their favorite game characters and their favorite games, and it also looked at Google Search data.
Mario was everyone’s favorite character, with 11% of the vote, but Peach trailed him by only two votes. Baby Peach also made the top 10, with 5% of the vote, Yoshi was third with 8%, and Luigi was number seven, with 4%. People chose their favorite characters primarily based on speed (42%) and cuteness (36%).
The top 10 Mario Kart games are Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart 8, Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart DS, Mario Kart 7, Mario Kart: Double Dash, Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart: Live Home Circuit, and Mario Kart Super Circuit. And the top 10 Mario Kart courses are Rainbow Road, Moo Moo Meadows, Waluigi Pinball, Peach Beach, Delfino Square, Koopa Cape, Maple Treeway, Coconut Mall, Mario’s Gold Mine, and Cheep Cheep Beach.
Generally, players were humble about their game skills—25% said they were skilled at Mario Kart, 25% said they played poorly, and 50% considered their skills average. A quarter of players indicated that they usually play the game for more than three hours at a time, and a majority (70%) of players are more likely to turn to the game later at night.
Redex found that gamers are quite competitive with Mario Kart, even to the detriment of their personal relationships. For example, 65% of players said that they wouldn’t let their partner win at Mario Kart, and another 65% of players said that they’d throw an item at their partner to stop them from winning. This is oddly at odds with a recent survey by GetCenturyLink, which found that Mario Kart had a positive effect on romantic relationships.
