Mario Kart World

This article is about the Nintendo Switch 2 game. For the digital soundtrack album on the Nintendo Music app, see Mario Kart World (Nintendo Music).

Mario Kart World
American box art For alternate box art, see the related gallery.
Developers	Nintendo EPD Monolith Soft 1-UP Studio Bandai Namco Studios
Publisher	Nintendo
Platform	Nintendo Switch 2
Release dates	June 5, 2025 June 5, 2025 June 5, 2025 June 5, 2025 June 5, 2025 June 5, 2025 June 5, 2025 June 5, 2025 June 5, 2025 June 5, 2025 June 5, 2025 June 5, 2025 June 5, 2025 June 5, 2025 June 5, 2025 June 5, 2025 June 5, 2025 June 5, 2025 June 26, 2025 June 26, 2025 June 26, 2025 July 3, 2025 July 10, 2025 September 17, 2025 December 10, 2026
Languages	English (United States) English (United Kingdom) Japanese Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Dutch French (Canada) French (Europe) German Italian Korean Polish Portuguese (Brazil) Portuguese (Europe) Russian Spanish (Latin America) Spanish (Europe) Thai
Genre	Racing
Ratings	ESRB: - Everyone CERO: - All ages PEGI: - Three years and older USK: - All ages ClassInd: - General audience SMECCV: - All ages Gmedia: - Three years and older GRAC: - All ages GSRR: - Six years and older UAEMC: - Three years and older ACB: - General FPB: - Parental guidance
Modes	Single player Multiplayer (2–4 players) Local Wireless Play (2–16 players) Online Play (2–24 players) LAN Play (2–24 players)
Format	Nintendo Switch 2: Game Card Digital download
Input	Nintendo Switch 2: Joy-Con 2 Joy-Con Joy-Con 2 (horizontal) Joy-Con (horizontal) Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller Nintendo Switch Pro Controller

“A world of racing awaits”

—Game tagline

Mario Kart World is a racing game in the Mario Kart series, first released for the Nintendo Switch 2 on June 5, 2025. Initially teased during the Nintendo Switch 2's reveal trailer on January 16, 2025, the game was properly revealed during the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct presentation on April 2, 2025. It is the sixteenth entry in the Mario Kart series and the first new Mario Kart title since 2020's Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit. It is also the first Mario Kart game to be a launch title for its console.

Mario Kart World distinguishes itself from previous games by introducing an open world where all of its courses are located. Players can either explore the game's world in Free Roam, or participate in Grand Prix and Knockout Tours on its courses, which are now connected by routes. The game's roster marked the playable debut of many enemies from across the series, including Cataquack, Swoop, and Conkdor, among many more. Altogether, this game features the most brand new playable character additions to the Mario Kart series to date. The art style of the game's characters has changed to further resemble 2D illustrations drawn by Shigehisa Nakaue, much like the in-game look of Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

The game was covered during the Nintendo Treehouse: Live events on April 3 and 4, 2025. A dedicated Nintendo Direct for the game titled the "Mario Kart World Direct" broadcast on April 17, 2025 at 1:00 p.m. UTC / 6:00 a.m. PT / 9:00 a.m. ET.

Mario Kart World is one of the first two Nintendo-published games to be localized in Polish (the other being Donkey Kong Bananza), with support added in Ver. 1.5.0 on January 21, 2026.

Gameplay

New features

Races now have 24 racers, doubling from the twelve seen in Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart 8, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, tripling from the eight seen in the other entries, and quadrupling the six from the arcade series. Players receive points in racing as before, with some positions receiving the same number of points, making Mario Kart World the first Mario Kart game where racers who finished in different places received the same number of points since Mario Kart: Super Circuit, when 5th-8th place were all awarded zero points.

Although underwater driving (introduced in Mario Kart 7) and anti-gravity (from Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe) do not return, gliding does, with gliders being replaced by retractable wings on the vehicles. When going over water, the wheels of all vehicles change into water skis, allowing them to float on the surface of the water. Both of these mechanics create a comparable vehicle system to Diddy Kong Racing and Diddy Kong Racing DS.

Many new mechanics are introduced in this game: when holding down the button after a hop without turning, players can charge up a Charge Jump instead of initiating a drift. After such a jump, the player is granted a small speed boost similar to a Mini-Turbo. The jumps can be charged, yielding blue, then yellow, then rainbow sparks, with longer charges granting a longer-lasting boost after landing, similarly to drifting. Vehicles can now wall ride by Jump Boosting or Charge Jumping onto walls, and rail ride on grindrails^{[conjectural]} and other thin platforms to quickly charge up Mini-Turbos. A new Rewind feature has also been added, which allows the player to rewind their position to where they were before. However, this feature does not rewind the other racers and can only be used in Free Roam or in solo races and Time Trials.

Unlike previous installments, all of the courses in the game take place in a large, open world, connected via the newly introduced routes, which are long, non-looping tracks filled with various hazards that connect from one course to another during races.

Players are able to enter large vehicles scattered around the world marked with question marks, and temporarily control them from the inside. The vehicles available to control are trucks, boats, helicopters, and UFOs.

Visually, the game is the first entry in the series, and the first Super Mario game overall, that can be played in resolutions higher than 1080p.

Controls

Action(s)
	Joy-Con 2 / Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller	Joy-Con 2 (horizontal)
Steer
Accelerate / Rocket Start
Brake / Reverse
Item / Horn / Taunt	/
Drift / Hop / Trick / Charge Jump	/
Rear view
Pause menu
Photo Mode
Rewind
Move camera
Retry Mission (Free Roam)
Open map (Free Roam)

Game modes

Grand Prix

Grand Prix returns as the main game mode from previous games, where the player races through four courses of a cup in a chosen engine class (50cc, 100cc, 150cc, or the unlockable Mirror Mode) to attain the most points, with higher placements yielding more points. However, the format of the Grand Prix has been changed significantly from previous games. Now, only the first race of a cup follows the traditional multiple-lap format. The last three races follow a sectioned format instead, with the first two sections (or more in certain cases) of the race taking place across routes that transition from the previous course to the next, while the final section consists of one lap of that next course.

Initially, only seven out of the eight cups are available in Grand Prix. Once a trophy has been obtained in all of them, a cutscene will play showing the seven trophies appearing at Acorn Heights and combining into the Special Cup trophy. The trophy will then fly across the sky with a rainbow trail behind it, much to the surprise of some of the racers. The trophy will then fly towards the Crown Bridge and immediately upwards, where it materializes into Rainbow Road offscreen. The Special Cup will then be unlocked for play.

Like in past games, the player is able to get up to three stars in addition to a trophy in a Grand Prix. Like Mario Kart 7, Mario Kart 8, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the stars are purely based on points, with the player getting all three stars by getting 60 points, which is done by getting first place in all four races.

As officially confirmed by Nintendo in a "Thank you for playing!" email sent to players, Mirror Mode is unlocked by:

• Playing the first seven cups in Grand Prix on 150cc (Nintendo's email erroneously states that all eight cups must be played in Grand Prix before replaying the Special Cup)
• Playing the first eight rallies in Knockout Tour on 150cc (with clearing checkpoints being optional)
• Completing 10 P Switch missions in Free Roam
• Activating 10 ? Panels in Free Roam
• Collecting 10 Peach Medallions in Free Roam
• Only after all of the above have been completed, the player must finish the Special Cup on 150cc to unlock it, including replaying the Special Cup if it has already been completed.

Once all of the criteria have been fulfilled, a cutscene will play where a rainbow-colored light travels into the stained glass on the castle in Peach Stadium. After a flash of light, the design on the stained glass is mirrored; Mario notices that the "L" on Luigi's cap is mirrored as well, and the two then celebrate. Mirror Mode will then be unlocked.

Unlike Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, progress made on a cup in Mirror Mode counts for other engine classes as well, a feature that only applied to 100cc and 150cc in the aforementioned two games.

Due to the increased racer count, 7th through 12th place are not considered losing places. Below is a chart of the point spread in Mario Kart World:

Game	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd	23rd	24th
Mario Kart World	15[a]	12[b]	10[b]	9[b]	9[b]	8[b]	8[b]	7[b]	7[b]	6[c]	6[c]	6[c]	5[c]	5[c]	5[c]	4[c]	4[c]	4[c]	3	3	3	2	2	1
a. Signifies victory results (great clapping, character(s) cheering), unique finish music, and the best after-race music. b. Signifies moderate results (mild clapping, moderate character reaction) and the same music in Wi-Fi as the winner (different in Mario Kart DS's Grand Prix). c. Signifies mediocre results (minimal character reactions) and music. No note signifies losing results (no clapping, character(s) showing a sad expression) and music.

Knockout Tour

Knockout Tour is a new all-out battle mode where players race over consecutive courses and routes across the open world and are eliminated at a specific checkpoint if they are in the last four places. Unlike races, there are no breaks in between, as players who qualify for the next race will simply continue in it.

Knockout Tour consists of rallies rather than cups, with each of the rallies having six checkpoints within. Unlike the Grand Prix, Knockout Tour focuses primarily on the routes between the courses. The first five races take place on a continuous path, with each checkpoint eliminating the players that place in the bottom four of the group. For the final race, the last four players standing will race a lap around the final course.

Like in Grand Prix, there are up to three stars that can be obtained in each rally. Similar to Grand Prix requiring a first-place finish in every race to obtain three stars, the player must place first at every checkpoint of a rally to get three stars in it.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Note(s)	Ref.
Japanese	サバイバル Sabaibaru	Survival
Chinese (Simplified)	生存赛 Shēngcún Sài (Mandarin) Sāngchyùhn Choi (Cantonese)	Survival Match
Chinese (Traditional)	生存賽 Shēngcún Sài (Mandarin) Sāngchyùhn Choi (Cantonese)
Dutch	Knock-outrally	Knockout Rally
French	Survie	Survival
German	K.-o.-Tour	K.O. Tour
Italian	Sopravvivenza	Survival
Korean	서바이벌 Seobaibeol	Survival
Polish	Nokaut	Knockout
Portuguese	Eliminatória	Elimination
Russian	Марафон на выбывание Marafon na vybyvaniye	Elimination marathon
Spanish	Supervivencia	Survival
Thai	แพ้คัดออก Pɛ́ɛ Kát'ɔ̀ɔk	Single Elimination

Free Roam

A map of all the roads used for courses, routes, and rallies (black), water areas used for routes (light blue), roads exclusively used in Free Roam (light green), and train tracks (red)

Free Roam is an open-world mode where one or multiple players can freely explore a large interconnected map containing the game's courses, both on- and off-road. The map has been described as a continent and Kosuke Yabuki, the game's producer, stated that, if he had to name the setting, it would be called "Mario Kart World". When going off-road, the player can drive at a faster speed compared to driving off-road during regular races. Item Boxes still appear in Free Roam, but only contain a small set of items: Dash Mushrooms, Triple Dash Mushrooms, Golden Dash Mushrooms, Feathers and Super Stars. Time in Free Roam moves according to a dynamic 24 minutes day-night cycle separated into four distinct periods: 14 minutes of daytime, 2 minutes of sunset, 6 minutes of nighttime and 2 minutes of sunrise.

CPU drivers are found driving in various locations of the world. All 24 main drivers (e.g. Mario, Luigi or Toad) appear in the game's map, and when selected, allows the player to play as them. Other drivers also appear racing in courses around the world. Along with drivers, various vehicles appear throughout Free Roam. Traffic normally confined to roads in routes and Crown City can now appear driving inside courses themselves. Seaplanes, helicopters and Ride helis fly over the world, occasionally landing or dropping Item Boxes from above.

As displayed in the HUD when viewing the world map in this mode, P Switches, ? Panels, and Peach Medallions appear as discoverable objects, all of which award the player with stickers. P Switches activate missions reminiscent of the Missions mode from Mario Kart DS and bonus challenges from Mario Kart Tour. In total, Free Roam contains 394 P Switches, 150 ? Panels, and 200 Peach Medallions. CPU drivers can also be encountered in Free Roam; the main characters drive around locations indicated by the map, and three random NPC characters can be found driving around the race courses. CPUs also appear as challengers in certain P Switch missions.

Once Mirror Mode is unlocked, the player can drive through the stained glass on either the front or back of the castle in Peach Stadium to mirror the entire world map in Free Roam.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Note(s)	Ref.
Japanese	フリーラン Furīran	Free Run
Chinese (Simplified)	自由行驶 Zìyóu Xíngshǐ (Mandarin) Jihyàuh Hàahngsái (Cantonese)	Free Drive
Chinese (Traditional)	自由行駛 Zìyóu Xíngshǐ (Mandarin) Jihyàuh Hàahngsái (Cantonese)
Dutch	Rondrijden	Driving Around
French	Balade	Stroll
German	Freies Fahren	Free Drive
Italian	Corsa libera	Free run
Korean	프리 런 Peuri Reon	Free Run
Polish	Swobodna jazda	Free drive
Portuguese	Modo livre	Free mode
Russian	Свободная езда Svobodnaya ezda	Free riding
Spanish (Latin America)	Paseo libre	Free drive
Spanish (Europe)	Modo libre	Free mode
Thai	ขับสํารวจโลก Kàp Sǎmrùuat Lôok	Drive and Explore the World

Time Trials

Time Trials return and function the same as they have previously. Players drive through a selected course to complete it as fast as possible. Like in previous games, players can race against ghost times set by other players online. Staff ghosts return under the same name prefixes as in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, those being "Nin★". Lap/section splits on the results screen were added in version 1.8.0, like in previous Mario Kart games.

VS Race

VS Race allows up to four players to play together locally and sixteen players to play wirelessly with custom rules.

The settings available in VS Race are:

• Class: The engine class the races will be played in.
• Teams: Determines whether races are played in teams or individually. Unlike previous games, it is now possible to play in three teams of eight racers each or four teams of six, in addition to only two teams of 12.
• Items: Sets the item balance, with "Normal" containing regular item balance and "Frantic" giving chaotic items more frequently. The version 1.2.0 update also added the "Mushrooms Only" option, which only gives Mushroom-based items. The version 1.4.0 update reintroduced "Custom Items" from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, allowing players to manually select which items appear, though unlike last time, items cannot be set for specific teams in team races.
• COM Difficulty: Sets the difficulty of computer racers, with the available options being "Easy", "Normal", and "Hard", or "No COM", which removes all computer racers. The "No COM" option was initially only available in multiplayer, but was made available for single player as well starting in version 1.2.0.
• Course Selection: Determines how courses are selected:
  • "Open" allows the player to select any course, including whether to play with routes or not.
  • In "Connected", the first race is chosen similarly to "Open", but after that, the player can only select from three courses that connect from the previous course, and the race will involve traversing the route to the next course. Occasionally, one to two of those options will be replaced by the option to play a track that does not connect to the previous course in the traditional lap style. The player can also select a random course, which may pick from one of the previously given courses with routes, or select a random course without routes. If the previously played course was Rainbow Road (which does not connect to any other course), the options will instead be courses that connect from Peach Stadium.
  • "Random" has racers playing on a random course, which will also randomly choose whether it is played with laps or routes. In the latter case, it will be a course that connects to the previously played course.
• Race Count: Select the number of races played. The player is able to select three, four, five, six, eight, 12, 16, or 32 races.

Several of the routes in VS Race give the destination course unique layouts compared to Grand Prix, Knockout Tour, and Time Trials, such as reverse layouts, combined layouts, or completely new layouts.

Battle

It has been requested that at least one image be uploaded for this section. Remove this notice only after the image(s) have been added. Specifics: Updated battle mode icon + Bob-omb Blast icon

Battle modes return with three battle modes to choose from: Balloon Battle, Coin Runners, and Bob-omb Blast as of version 1.6.0. The settings for Battle mode are similar to VS Race, but engine class cannot be set (as all battles are played in 50cc), only "Open" and "Random" are available in course selection, and the number of rounds has a maximum of eight, as opposed to the 32 races in VS Race. Additionally, when using "Custom Items" (aside from Bob-omb Blast, where it is disabled), turning off every item causes the Mushroom to automatically turn on, while turning off every item except for the Blooper and/or Dash Food causes the Green Shell to automatically turn on. Matches have a set three-minute timer present during battles, which is non-adjustable like in Mario Kart Wii.

Balloon Battle

Balloon Battle has been reverted to the elimination/point hybrid system used in Mario Kart 8, where players gain points by hitting other opponents, and all of the points they gained will be added to their total score if they survive until the end. Unlike Mario Kart 8, if the player loses all of their balloons, they are not only eliminated from the game, but their score is also nullified, meaning that they get last place and do not get any points for the round.

Like in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, players start with five balloons rather than three like in other games. Defeated players do not continue being able to use items like in Mario Kart 8. In local and online multiplayer, players can instead continue watching their opponents play, much like if they get eliminated in Knockout Tour.

Coin Runners

Coin Runners functions similarly to its previous appearances, where the objective is to collect the most coins when the time limit expires while avoiding getting hit, which will cause the player to lose coins. However, similar to Mario Kart 7's version of Coin Runners, there is a limit to the number of coins the player can collect, that being 20. Once the time is up, the number of coins the player collected will be added to their total point tally.

Bob-omb Blast

Added in the version 1.6.0 update, Bob-omb Blast is similar to its iteration from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, where it functions as a variant of Balloon Battle with Bob-ombs as the only item. Players can hold up to ten Bob-ombs, and the distance they are thrown is dependent on how long they hold the item button, where they instantly explode upon touching the ground. In the last minute of a round, the Item Boxes slowly start being replaced by Double Item Boxes, allowing for more Bob-ombs to be obtained at a time. Unlike other balloon-related Battle modes in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Mario Kart World, players start with six balloons instead of five. Otherwise, the mode follows the same rules as this game's Balloon Battle.

Online Play

Online multiplayer returns from previous Mario Kart games and allows one or two people to play with others over the Internet. Four modes are available: Race, Knockout Tour, Battle, and Friends. Race, Knockout Tour, and Battle feature random match-ups with players from around the world. The player has a separate score (unnamed in-game but referred to as Versus Rating by Nintendo, like in prior titles since Mario Kart Wii) for each mode, starting with 3000 and gaining or losing points depending on their performance in each race or battle. If playing with two players, the second player will not have a score kept.

• In Race, course selection is based on the "Connected" option seen in VS Race. After all players in the room have chosen a course, one player's choice is selected at random along with a engine class in accordance with the score of players in the lobby.
• In Knockout Tour, a random rally in a engine class in accordance with the score of players in the lobby is chosen and played.
• In Battle, the player can select from one of three battle courses, after which a course, along with the battle mode type, is selected at random.

Friends

The Friends mode allows the player(s) to create or join a room, or view their battle history with people in their friends list. When creating a friend room, the host is able to set the rules of the room, including whether the mode played is a VS Race, Knockout Tour, Balloon Battle, or Coin Runners. In the settings, players can determine how long they will wait on the Free Roam map between races/battles through the "intermission" setting, with the options being 10 seconds, one minute, or five minutes. Course selection in VS Race will initially appear as in worldwide matches. However, pressing on the course selection screen will instead toggle the "Open" course selection screen seen in offline VS Race. In Knockout Tour and Battle, the player is able to select any rally or battle course, respectively, they want to play on, which will then be chosen randomly among the players' choices.

In all online modes, players can roam the world before and between matches. Unlike in the offline Free Roam mode, P Switches do not appear in these free roam lobbies, though players can still collect ? Panels and Peach Medallions, which will count towards their own totals.

Characters

The game has a total of 50 racers, with 32 being available from the start and 18 being unlockable. Of the total racers, 30 return from past installments and 20 are new (labeled in bold), most of whom are also playable for the first time in a video game overall, excluding Goomba, Piranha Plant, Pianta, Spike, and Dolphin, as well as Cheep Cheep and Coin Coffer if captures in Super Mario Odyssey are counted, and Sidestepper if Mystery Mushroom costumes in Super Mario Maker are counted. Additionally, Nabbit, Hammer Bro, Chargin' Chuck, and Monty Mole are playable for the first time in a console Mario Kart game following their debuts in Mario Kart Tour. Excluding arcade games and Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, this is the first game in the Mario Kart series since the introduction of Mii characters on the Wii to not feature them as playable characters. This is also the first game to feature Donkey Kong's 2025 redesign outside of profile icons.

Twenty-six drivers in this game are part of a sub-category of drivers referred to as "NPC drivers" during development. These consist of all twenty newcomers, as well as six returning characters: Dry Bones, Wiggler, Hammer Bro, Chargin' Chuck, Nabbit, and Monty Mole. All appear in the game as either background characters, obstacles during races, or hazards in Free Roam. During races, the Kamek item can transfor