Despite initially launching almost a decade ago on the notoriously doomed Wii U console, Mario Kart 8 is as popular as ever. Of course, the later Switch port, dubbed Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, helped keep the game in the spotlight, but even that release is almost five years old now. However, the game shows no signs of slowing down; in fact, recent Twitch metrics show that the game is currently exploding in popularity.
In some ways, the kart racer getting a lot of Twitch views is to be expected. Mario Kart 8 is the best selling racing game of all time, after all, but the real question is, why is this happening now? In the last month there was a 109% month over month growth in hours watched for Mario Kart 8 streams as well as a 68.4% month over month growth in average concurrent viewers for the category.
Part of the mystery can be solved when looking at some of the streamers playing the game. Popular Twitch broadcasters like eliasn97 and mmmkhayyy have taken to playing Mario Kart 8 on their streams, and as they have huge fanbases the category was bound to see a jump from their views alone. It also helps that Nintendo runs Mario Kart 8 tournaments and continues to support the game and its massive community of online players. In that way, Mario Kart 8 also helps to boost Twitch streamers by bringing a built in fanbase of its own to the table. In fact Tubbo, a popular streamer who usually plays Minecraft, saw his highest average concurrent view count on Twitch while streaming Mario Kart 8.
In this way, it seems the relationship between Twitch streamers and Mario Kart 8 is a symbiotic one, with a signal boost coming from both sides. A similar phenomenon recently occurred when the Chess category on Twitch exploded in popularity after the release of the Netflix series The Queen's Gambit. The TV show's popularity brought a lot of new viewers to Chess streamers like Chessbysofie, but once the initial buzz for the show died down it was the streamers themselves that kept the category flourishing.
Of course, there will always be the popular "it" game of the moment. Among Us Twitch fans watched more than 200 million hours of the game in 2020's fourth quarter alone, but even as the online space-themed game ages out of its time in the sun, streamers like Pokimane have helped keep attention on the title. Similarly, even though Mario Kart 8 is several years old, streamers like eliasn97 and SMii7y have indirectly used their own popularity to breathe new life into the game's community.
Due to its 109% month over month growth, the Mario Kart 8 popularity boom is a particularly good example in showing the impact Twitch streamers can have in signal boosting specific games. Whether the streamers are aware they're doing it or not, from signal boosting Chess on Twitch to causing Rust streams to become extremely popular, top tier Twitch streamers will likely continue to bring attention to diverse and unexpected categories and games on the platform.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is available now on Nintendo Switch.
Source: TwitchMetrics
