Nintendo was hoping for and certainly needed to make a big splash with Mario Kart 8. It needed good reviews and good sales numbers to help turn the fortunes of the Wii U around and it looks like it might have gotten it. In just the first month (or slightly less than) it's sold over two million copies of the game. This represents almost a third of all Wii U owners, a staggering achievement.
This was originally discussed in the company's 74th annual earnings call which took place yesterday and was later confirmed to IGN by Nintendo's Genyo Takaeda, speaking on behalf of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, who is currently recovering from surgery on his bile duct.
While Nintendo didn't offer any concrete numbers on Wii U sales, the Mario Kart 8 bundle represented a lot of the sales of the game, thereby increasing the number of console owners by a good margin. Nintendo also said that in general, sales of the console were picking up, suggesting that publicity surrounding the launch and subsequent success of Mario Kart 8 are certainly helping.
Whether this will be enough to turn the console around and make it a genuine competitor remains to be seen. It's currently sitting in second place, ahead of Microsoft's Xbox One, which much like the Wii U had a strong opening few months and holiday sales period, but since than hasn't picked up much steam.
The PS4 however is way out in front, selling several million systems more than either Microsoft or Nintendo.
