By Jacob Miller | Sep 26, 2025
Sega's Confident Attack on Mario KartFar ahead of the September release, Sonic Team lead Takashi Iizuka made some statements to trumpet the differences between the two franchises. In June 2025, he lashed out at Mario Kart World for only being on the Nintendo Switch System, and the following week, he started to tout that everybody will play together, no matter what, on Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds.
Sonic Team also leaned into and invited some razzing at one another's expense by running a short spot focusing solely on the free-roam mode with Mario Kart World.
This type of direct marketing and advertisement followed through to the launch of the game, and is yet another example of their strategy to revisit Nintendo's game features both in the marketing voice and game access.
A Big First Impression for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
Since the September 25 release of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, it has made it on record as to longevity. Just based on tracking data, one platform, Steam, had a player peak of just over thirteen thousand players, and quickly made it up the best sellers list.
The title had overall user reviews of Overwhelmingly Positive as a way to document tremendous community acclaim.
Additionally, reviews rated well after its release with an overall OpenCritic score of 83/100. The title gave action descriptors of fast pace gaming, alongside the new cross-play features to help develop the conversation of writing Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds into storyboards with game franchises and other kart racing titles.
Even with Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds making a big first impression, Nintendo's Mario Kart World will continue to be affixed as a giant of the game. Now released as a flagship title for Nintendo Switch 2, sales are already reported for approximately six million sales on just the one platform (Nintendo Switch 2).
It is reported Mario Kart continues to be the best-selling title and franchise in video game sales history, earning a game title total of over hundreds of millions. According to just two resellers, Mario Kart 8 alongside the deluxe version, are reported above seventy thousand sales just in the US.
It is also reported that Sonic sales of the initial franchise, such as Team Sonic Racing, sold just above four million copies, so Sega still has a way to go before they can compete with Nintendo's sales, even just for a single title.
Two Different Strengths for Gamers
While the competition around Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds creates chatter in headlines, many gamers would consider the competition a win for gamer fans. In a very objective measure of each franchise and respective game series, Mario Kart World remains a strong draw for players, due to game modes focused around the areas of open world and discoveries of aspects to the game overall.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds design parameters take on an emphasis of all things speed around the thrill of adrenaline, or game play, with very speedy races that adhere to the commitments of "fast" design parameters established in the Sonic and video game legacy, and just add a little attitude, and we have a speedy adrenaline rushing race.
In conclusion, launching each title shows they both achieve a level of experience for competition and competition in a sense of kart racing, indeed, an outcome to expand the competition to gamer fans of each title in the genre of kart racing experience, but in the most diverse selections of experiences, effectively growing the selection and genre experience.
