The Mario Kart World Cup commenced on July 11th and ended August 8th, marking the 5th annual World Cup event. The tournament has evolved dramatically since its conception, and a Mario Kart esports scene may be on a rise.
Across two livestreams there were 14,000 viewers, marking the most viewed Mario Kart competition of all time. In 2015, the first World Cup scored a coveted spot on Twitch’s homepage, radically boosting viewers. This tournament has set the bar for every competitive Mario Kart Wii tournament that has followed, launching Mario Kart from simply being a video game into the esports business.
This year, the organisation asked star esports players from countries such as Denmark and Japan to form teams and compete, and followed a more general esports format. Although Mario Kart still lacks some hallmarks of a modern esport, their esports scene is on a rise, and the passion of their competitive scene has grown.
This push towards bringing Mario Kart into competitive esports is an interesting one, as it is a game that has been played competitively for a very long time and has a lot of value. It will be interesting to see what next year’s tournament brings us.
