Nintendo Is Pulling The Plug On Mario Kart Tour This September

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Nintendo has confirmed that Mario Kart Tour will permanently shut down on 29 September 2026, ending support for the free-to-play mobile racer nearly seven years after its launch on iOS and Android. Once the servers go offline, the game will no longer be playable. There are currently no plans for an offline version.

That makes Mario Kart Tour one of the few recent Nintendo mobile games to disappear entirely. When Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp ended service, Nintendo released a paid offline replacement called Pocket Camp Complete. Mario Kart Tour will not receive similar treatment.

Gold Pass Is Going Away, But Everyone Gets The Benefits First

Nintendo has already stopped new Gold Pass subscriptions and automatic renewals.

Players with an active subscription can continue using most Gold Pass benefits until the game closes. From 4 August, Nintendo will also unlock those same benefits for every player during the game’s remaining service period. 

Spend Your Rubies While You Still Can

The game’s premium currency is also being phased out.

Nintendo has ended Ruby sales, meaning players can no longer purchase the in-game currency. Existing Rubies can still be spent in shops including the Spotlight Shop, Mii Racing Suit Shop and Coin Rush before the shutdown.

Unused Rubies will expire once service ends, and Nintendo has confirmed they will not be refunded. 

Years Of Progress Will Disappear

Because Mario Kart Tour is built around online services, shutting down the servers also means players will lose access to everything tied to their accounts.

That includes collected drivers, karts, gliders, event progress and other unlockables accumulated over the years.

For players who invested money into in-game purchases, that has become one of the biggest points of frustration following Nintendo’s announcement, with many asking whether the game could be preserved in an offline format instead.

Nintendo has not indicated that such a version is in development. 

One Of Nintendo’s Biggest Mobile Hits

Mario Kart Tour launched in September 2019 and quickly became Nintendo’s most successful mobile game debut at the time, surpassing 90 million downloads during its first week. By 2021, the game had crossed 200 million downloads, according to Sensor Tower. 

While new characters and tracks stopped arriving in October 2023, Nintendo continued rotating existing tours and events until now. Many of the game’s original tracks later found a second life in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe through the Booster Course Pass, and some have also appeared in Mario Kart World. 

Nintendo’s Mobile Strategy Has Been Changing

Nintendo has been scaling back its mobile ambitions for several years.

The company has already ended support for titles including Dr. Mario World and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, while positioning mobile games more as a way to introduce players to Nintendo’s wider ecosystem rather than as long-term standalone businesses. 

Nintendo’s increasing focus on the Switch 2 era with Mario Kart World becoming a key flagship release.

Nintendo has not said that Mario Kart Tour is closing because of Mario Kart World. But with no major content updates arriving since 2023 and the company’s attention now centred on newer console releases, the shutdown does not come as a complete surprise. 

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