It has been revealed that Mario Kart Tour made an estimated $293 million through its lifetime, according to figures provided by market intelligence company Sensor Tower to gamesindustry.biz. This astonishing amount of money for Nintendo likely came primarily through its controversial gacha system.
The game formerly involved the purchase of mystery pipes to unlock new characters and karts. The surprise element of this loot box system is known to be addicting, and relies on repeat purchases until the player gets the items they desire. For this reason loot boxes are highly lucrative for developers, at the cost of outcry from their fans.
As we reported last week, Mario Kart Tour is actually removing the gambling elements later this month. The game joins Overwatch in the list of games that formerly used the loot box system before ultimately deciding on removing the mechanic in favour of an in-game item shop.
Are you surprised by these Mario Kart Tour earnings figures? Did you spend any money on the game? Let us know in the comments below, and keep your eyes on GameLuster for more Nintendo news.
