Mario Kart 9 First Look suggests 24 individual races are coming to the Nintendo Switch 2 game

On January 16, 2025By Littum

Nintendo has officially revealed the Nintendo Switch 2 and Mario Kart 9 alongside it, which seems to confirm 24-person racing for the first time in the series’ history.

A short reveal trailer for the Nintendo Switch 2 focused mostly on hardware, but also revealed its first confirmed game: Mario Kart 9. While Nintendo only shared a relatively tame look at what is likely the opening track and characters, something new was apparently confirmed.

The opening shot of the race saw a total of 24 starting positions on the track, double the standard 12 used in previous games. And while this could be purely an aesthetic choice, the final gameplay footage appears to show at least 14 individual racers on the track at once.

Not only this, but the track shown in the trailer looks excessively wide, which will likely compensate for this increased number of racers (and mayhem) that Nintendo is implementing in Mario Kart 9.

It has also made similar moves in the past alongside technological leaps, as its fighting game Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U introduced eight-person brawls for the first time, twice as many as possible in previous titles.

Fans will likely get a bigger look at Mario Kart 9 and its number of racers in the Nintendo Switch 2 Nintendo Direct in April. The short trailer has already confirmed a few things about the new hardware, of course, such as backwards compatibility features and the addition of a second USB-C port.

Most details, such as its other games and what the heck the mysterious new Joy-Con button does, were left out, though the Joy-Con mouse theory gained some traction.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He wants to talk about The Witcher all day.

Mario Kart 9 – First Look