After seven years, over 200 million downloads, and $200 million in lifetime revenue, Nintendo is switching off the servers. On July 8, 2026, the company confirmed that Mario Kart Tour will shut down on September 29, 2026, ending one of the most successful mobile games it has ever released.
Drawing on Vice's coverage of the announcement, GamesIndustry.biz's business analysis, and additional reporting from NXS Media Wire and other outlets, here's the full picture of what is happening to Mario Kart Tour, its players, and Nintendo's mobile strategy.
Nintendo shared the news across social media and its official Mario Kart Tour website. "Service for the Mario Kart Tour game for smart devices will come to an end as of 11:00 p.m. Pacific on September 29," the announcement read, thanking players who supported the game since launch.
Shutdown timing works out to 11:00 p.m. PT on September 29, 2:00 a.m. ET on September 30, 7:00 a.m. BST, and 8:00 a.m. CET. Once servers go offline, the video game will be unplayable for both iOS and Android users. Nintendo has confirmed no offline version is planned, breaking with the precedent set by Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, which received a paid offline "Complete" version after its 2024 shutdown. Every microtransaction ever spent with real money, and every character, kart, glider, and course unlocked, will be gone on September 30.
Nintendo has already begun winding the game down. Sales of Rubies, the premium currency purchased with real money, ended on July 7, 2026. Existing Rubies can still be spent in the Spotlight Shop, Mii Racing Suit Shop, and Coin Rush until service ends.
The Mario Kart Tour Gold Pass subscription unlocked 200cc mode, gold challenges, gold gifts, doubled daily coin caps, faster multiplayer matchmaking, and a higher grade cap. All automatic renewals and new subscriptions were cancelled as of the July 7 maintenance. Existing subscribers keep their benefits for free until September 29, minus continuous-subscription perks. Every remaining player will receive Gold Pass benefits for free from the start of the Vacation Tour on August 4 through the shutdown, letting anyone still logged into their Nintendo Account experience the game's full feature set one last time.
Mario Kart Tour ran on a biweekly rhythm of themed tours, split into different cups. Each cup contained three courses plus a bonus challenge, with progression measured through Grand Stars earned by hitting a target overall score.
The gameplay loop mixed standard races on classic Mario Kart tracks with more experimental remix courses and gold races, adapted for mobile touch controls. Some circuits came directly from previous installments of the Mario Kart series, others were new city-based tracks set in Paris, Tokyo, New York, London, and Berlin. When a player finishes a race in first place, they scored bonus points multiplied by the difficulty of the cup. Even a 5th place finish at high skill level could contribute a decent amount of points to a player's overall score.
Combat came through the item box system familiar from previous Mario Kart games. Picking up an item box gave a random weapon or defensive tool. Grabbing three identical items triggered its signature Frenzy Mode, a short window of infinite number of items and invincibility. This new frenzy mode, unique to Mario Kart Tour, made the mobile game more forgiving than console entries. Coins picked up on track increased the amount of coins for kart upgrades, and Grand Stars unlocked new cups and new characters.
The character roster was a key hook. New drivers arrived with almost every tour, each with their own special skill triggered by hitting an item box on the right course. Karts, gliders, and drivers gained experience points as they raced, raising their skill level and improving item odds. Gold Mario was an aspirational unlock chased through green pipes, the original gacha mechanic Nintendo replaced with the Spotlight Shop in 2022. Daily login bonuses, daily selects, and tour gifts kept players engaged, and the Nintendo Account tie-in meant progress carried across devices.
Mario Kart Tour was the eighth mainline entry in the Mario Kart series and the only one built for smartphones. It sat alongside the arcade-exclusive Mario Kart Arcade GP series (starting with the original Mario Kart Arcade GP in 2005) as one of two branches outside the console lineage that began with Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo in 1992. That first Mario Kart game established the item box, the finish line rankings, and the mix of skill and chaos every subsequent title iterated on.
Some Tour-original tracks will outlive the game, ported into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as DLC and potentially into the new Mario Kart World on Switch 2.
Nintendo hasn't given a public reason. The game had been in maintenance mode since late 2023, with no new courses, drivers, karts, or gliders added for over two years. A brief content push in July 2025 tied to the Switch 2's Mario Kart World launch was more marketing gesture than serious content.
The bigger story is what the shutdown says about Nintendo's mobile strategy. The company spent the late 2010s aggressively building its smartphone lineup with Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Dr. Mario World, and Mario Kart Tour. Half of those are now shut down. Nintendo recently launched Pictonico!, a WarioWare-style photo game, so the company has not given up on mobile entirely, but the era of throwing its biggest franchises at smartphones looks to be closing.
At its peak, Mario Kart Tour was a genuine phenomenon. Per Sensor Tower, it pulled in 90.1 million downloads in its first week on the App Store and Google Play combined, the highest first-week total for any Nintendo mobile game ever, surpassing Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp's 14.3 million. It crossed 123.9 million downloads in its first month and 200 million by April 2021, with lifetime revenue exceeding $200 million.
The game ranked among the highest-grossing free-to-play titles for years, turning real-world cities into permanent additions to the Mario Kart canon. In 2020, the Super Mario Kart Tour event celebrated Super Mario Bros' 35th anniversary, and the video game was nominated for Game of the Year at multiple award shows.
With Mario Kart Tour joining Dr. Mario World and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp on the retired list, Nintendo's active mobile lineup shrinks to Fire Emblem Heroes, Super Mario Run, Pikmin Bloom, and Pictonico!. Whether another mobile Mario Kart is in development is unclear. For now, players have until September 29 to race one last Grand Prix. After that, Mario Kart Tour joins the long list of live-service games whose only remaining life is in memory.
You can download and install Mario Kart Tour on your phone from the Apple App Store on iOS or Google Play on Android. The app is free to download and install until service ends on September 29, 2026, though the game will be completely unplayable after that date.
You can find official news and announcements about Mario Kart Tour on the game's official website, the Mario Kart Tour Twitter/X account, and Nintendo's social media channels. All shutdown details were posted through these channels on July 8, 2026, and further updates will follow through September.
The community has reacted to Mario Kart Tour with a mix of enthusiasm and criticism since its release. Initial reception praised the accessible controls but criticised gacha mechanics, which Nintendo later replaced. The shutdown announcement has drawn backlash on social media, particularly over the missing offline mode.
With Mario Kart Tour retiring alongside Dr. Mario World and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Nintendo's active mobile lineup shrinks to Fire Emblem Heroes, Super Mario Run, Pikmin Bloom, and Pictonico!. Whether another mobile Mario Kart is in development is unclear. Players have until September 29 to race one last Grand Prix.
Alex Castellari · Editor
Editor
