Mario Kart 8 Blasts Wii U Sales By 666% In The UK, PS4 Could Be In Trouble

Nintendo is back in the game, baby. They're back and they're better than ever. An HD console with HD content and a brand new game that's burning up the charts hotter than the latest Chris Brown brown album dropping in wife-beater territories. Nintendo is rolling in the big time.

CVG – still reporting on the front even with a massive banhammer looming overhead – has gathered info from Chart-Track, a research monitoring group that keeps stats on the U.K's sales data, and the Wii U hardware and Mario Kart 8 bundle sales are looking real sweet for the Big 'N'.

According to Chart-Track, Mario Kart 8 recorded the highest first week sales for any Wii U title since the console's debut.

The special Mario Kart 8 Wii U bundles that have been selling out the world around have managed to account for 82% of all Wii U hardware sales in the previous week. The data also indicates that the Wii U's sales presence in the market has boomed by a massive 666% thanks to the release of Mario Kart 8. Heck, it looks like even the devil smiles favorably on the underdog every once in a while.

It's pretty safe to say, but if the Wii U kicked the less-than-royal bum-hole of the PS4 in Japan last week, even with the recent release of inFamous: Second Son, I'm guessing it's going to be total buttcheek-decimation this week. And the Xbox One? Ha, don't make me laugh.

Hopefully we can get some stats on how well Reggie and the crew didin the U.S., because I'm willing to bet that the Regginator cleaned house.

Nintendo has slowly been pulling the Wii U out of the hotbed of failure, but this time it's occurring because software is moving the console and not because of the holiday market rush. In fact, Nintendo seems to be the only one with a solid software release plan while both Sony and Microsoft are looking a little on the plate when it comes to summer releases.

This also seems to show that there is definitely interest in the Wii U so long as compelling software is there to keep gamers interested.

Nintendo will really need to hunker down from here on in and keep the hot releases coming for the Wii U at reasonable intervals if they hope to catch back up to the PS4, especially while Sony is in a bit of a software lull with the PS4.

What's more is that the Big 'N' still has quite a few system-movers on their hands in the pipeline, too. Just about every core RPG fan is looking forward to Monolith Soft's 'X' (heck, even non-RPG fans are looking forward to that game). There's Bayonetta 2 for everyone out there yelling about blood and sex being the only thing that makes a game “Mature”, and there's the highly anticipated but not-yet-announced Legend of Zelda U. Of course, how could I also forget about Super Smash Bros.?

All that stands now between Nintendo and victory over the eighth-generation of gaming is a strong marketing push throughout the next two quarters leading into the holiday sales rush and a gaming titan that goes by the name of Sony.

The race is on and the console war is continuing to heat up. No matter which side you're standing on, there are explosions everywhere and flames a-plenty. It's best to grab some popcorn and watch the sparks fly as we head into E3 next week.

[Update: Mario Kart 8 has sold 1.2 million copies]