On 24th September 2019, Nintendo launched Mario Kart Tour for mobile devices. This was Mario’s second outing in mobile gaming, following 2016’s Super Mario Run, which had an impressive initial reception but seemingly failed to generate much revenue (compared with other big mobile games, including Nintendo’s own Fire Emblem Heroes).
Mario Kart Tour aimed to change that, built with mobile player expectations in mind, and ultimately proved more successful than Super Mario Run at the time. So it's ironic then that Mario Run is still getting updates while Tour will end service on Wednesday 30th September 2026.
I have been playing Mario Kart Tour daily since its launch seven years ago.
Every Tuesday, I would spend an hour in bed before sleeping, trying to top the weekly rankings and get those precious Rubies. I would play it while commuting on the train or during lunch. I’d go through every cup, do every challenge, and slowly build up my characters and karts until they reached their maximum potential (Level 8 with variable score depending on their rank). It was a big part of my life through the COVID days, when moving house and city, and even through career changes.
I’ve been playing Mario Kart Tour this whole time, so it’s odd knowing that I won’t be able to anymore - and not by my own choice.
On the other hand, it’s also kind of a relief. While Tour is closing down now, it stopped adding new content a long time ago. Aside from a single tour that dropped to promote Mario Kart World in 2025, Mario Kart Tour officially stopped getting new content on 4th October 2023. From then on, it just repeated and recycled everything it had already set up for addicted fans like me.
So there was nothing new for me to see in this game, yet I was still putting in the hours every week, and these are hours I will never get back, but will finally have free again. Maybe hours I will put towards my intimidating backlog (Silksong has been staring at me for over a year now).
Even though I’m relieved to be getting that time back, it was obviously fun playing this game even without anything new from Nintendo. I would’ve stopped playing if it was boring. While many might see nothing new being added and lose motivation to keep playing, for me it meant the game had a real endpoint to work toward, since there was still plenty of content I hadn’t unlocked.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.nintendolife.com/features/opinion-i-played-mario-kart-tour-every-day-for-seven-years-and-what-am-i-left-with
