Mario Kart 8's surprise Switch 2 update makes everyone faster "by the equivalent of one coin," decimating world records everywhere

Nintendo's surprise update for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Switch 2 turned out to be a wrecking ball for the game's existing world records, implementing a sweeping speed increase that makes everyone – regardless of kart and racer – faster by a substantial measure.

As highlighted in a viral video being shared across social media in the wake of the update, Mario Kart 8 race, player speed has been increased across the board "by the equivalent of one coin," according to the official patch notes. In case you're unfamiliar, players pick up speed in Mario Kart 8 when they collect coins, with each coin adding an equal speed boost up until 10 coins, at which point full speed is reached. This update raises the baseline speed up to what was reached by collecting one point in previous versions of the game.

You might've glossed right over this change considering the surprisingly chunky Mario Kart 8 – yes, not Mario Kart World – update's other additions, which include "clearer" visuals, better load times, 5-8 player multiplayer support, and GameChat support. Essentially, the update brings Mario Kart 8 up to par with Mario Kart World in terms of Switch 2 compatibility, which is really a peculiar move from Nintendo considering Mario Kart World was the Switch 2's big launch title.

Anyway, as you might expect, Mario Kart 8 world record racers are scrambling to make sense of a world where every racer is suddenly considerably faster than before. Naturally, existing world records are just waiting to be smashed, and likely already have been at the time of writing. As one "friendly neighborhood Pokemon New Yorker" put it on Twitter, "RIP every MK8D World Record in the last 5 years."

You get the idea. To you and me, a marginal baseline speed increase might not seem like the Earth-shattering news that it is for Mario Kart speedracers, but if you're rightfully proud of clearing a map faster than literally anyone else in the world, well, if you're a glass-half-full type of person, you could see this as an opportunity to prove your drifting precision and red turtle shell dodging abilities to the internet once more. We live in a post-4.0 Mario Kart world (not that Mario Kart World) now, so you better keep up.

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