Mario Kart 8 zooms past 1m sales in the US

Nintendo has been having a difficult couple of years, with sales of its latest console, the Wii U, not exactly setting the world on fire.

But there’s some good news for the games pioneer as Mario Kart 8 sales top the one million mark in the US.

It’s the second Wii U title to achieve those sales in the States – New Super Mario Bros Wii U was the first.

Globally, Mario Kart 8 has already sold more that 2.8m copies.

Nintendo also announced that more than 40m 3DS consoles have been sold so far in 2014, along with more than 1m games.

“Mario Kart 8 continues to drive momentum for the Wii U platform,” Nintendo said in a statement.

“Through the first seven months of 2014, total sales of Wii U hardware and software have increased by nearly 60 percent and more than 135 percent, respectively, over the same period in 2013.”

The Wii U was launched in November 2012 and global sales stood at 6.68m units at the end of June 2014.