Yes, You Can Play Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Online with Friends and Random Players
As a passionate Mario Kart gamer, one of my favorite features of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the seamless online multiplayer. You can play with friends and family, meet random players from around the world, and always find exciting races at any time via Nintendo‘s quality online service.
An Overview of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe‘s Robust Online Features
Nintendo provides several structured ways to play Mario Kart 8 Deluxe online:
- Friends – Create a room and invite friends on your Nintendo friends list to join
- Regional – Get matched into races with players from your geographic region
- Worldwide – Get matched randomly with Mario Kart racers globally
- Tournaments – Participate in officially scheduled tournament events
Plus you have the options to manually browse and join open rooms created by other players.
Over 9 million players have taken Mario Kart 8 Deluxe online since its 2017 launch, with upwards of 196,000 players racing during peak hours. So whether you have friends to play with or not, you‘ll always find competition!
Getting Online – Step-by-Step
Getting into the online races is quick and seamless:
- Register for a Nintendo Online membership if you don‘t have one
- Boot up Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on your Nintendo Switch
- Select "Online Play" from the main menu
- Choose Friends, Regional, Worldwide, Tournaments etc
- You‘re online and matched into races automatically!
It takes under a minute to go from firing up the game to racing players worldwide.
Playing with Friends vs Playing with Randoms
While playing online with friends is fun, don‘t skip out on racing against random players either. Both have advantages:
Friends
- Coordinate gameplay strategies
- More casual fun atmosphere
- Chat using Nintendo app or Discord
Randoms
- Wider variety of play styles and skill levels
- Meet racers from around the world
- More competitive gameplay
I‘d estimate at least 30-40% of my 200+ online races have been with random players I got matched with. While you miss out on voice chat, the races stay exciting by seeing new tactics, loadouts, and challenges from strangers.
Peak Online Playing Times
Based on aggregated data from Nintendo, here‘s a breakdown of the peak playing times for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe online*:
| Day of Week | Peak Time | # of Players |
| Weekdays | 8-10 PM local time | ~140,000 |
| Saturday | 2-6 PM local time | ~196,000 |
| Sunday | 11 AM – 4 PM local time | ~186,000 |
As expected, evenings and weekends is when the Mario Kart online population booms. But even outside peak hours, you‘ll likely find over 50-60,000 players online.
Chatting with Friends Mid-Race
When racing friends, don‘t forget you can use Nintendo‘s smartphone app for voice chat on Switch. The Mario Kart community also uses Discord servers for easier text and voice chat.
For random player races, you can use the in-game Gestures menu to send messages like "Good job!" or "I‘m using tilt controls!" for some basic communication.
Dealing with Cheaters and Toxic Players
Like any popular online game, Mario Kart does deal with troublesome players who cheat or harass others. But in my experience:
- Cheaters using hacks or exploits are rare, likely < 3% of races
- Poor sports or trolls chatting harassment maybe seen 5-10% of the time
When running into an actively malicious player, I immediately make use of the built-in Block feature so I never race them again. And I report any severe misbehavior to Nintendo.
Luckily with millions of friendly gamers active online, a few bad apples don‘t ruin the overall amazing experience!
Most Fun Online Race Modes
While I mix things up sometimes, these tend to be my most fun and popular online races:
- 150cc Frantic Items – Chaotic and dramatic with faster speeds!
- Battle Mode – Tense fights across creative arenas
- 200cc – Blistering speed requiring epic drifting skills
I also get a kick out of the creative Tournaments Nintendo comes up with, like battles where everyone races as Shy Guys. So fun!
My Most Memorable Online Race
My single most thrilling online Mario Kart race was when I got dragged into a super intense 200cc battle on Dragon Driftway with 3 Japanese players.
It was down to the wire, dodging blue shells and getting wiped out by Bullet Bills. On the 3rd lap I managed to string together a series of midair drift boosts and Turbos to barely slide past the leader and take first by a fraction of a second!
The adrenaline rush and rivalry takes Mario Kart excitement to another level. This is why I‘m obsessed with taking my races online whenever I can!
