Kirby Air Riders sales in Japan vs UK are a world apart

The existence of Kirby Air Riders might be baffling to some, but its sales in Japan perfectly justify the game’s existence.

Kirby Air Riders is one of the most divisive Nintendo games in recent memory and while we find its existence bewildering, it’s a very different story in Japan.

As reported by Famitsu, the Kirby racing spin-off has topped the Japanese chart with a massive 195,594 copies sold within its first week. This isn’t as high as Kirby And The Forgotten Land’s debut, which hit 380,060 copies sold back in 2022, but it’s still an impressive number considering it’s a Switch 2 exclusive.

For a comparison, the game in second place, Mario Kart World, achieved 67,068 sales within the same week, which is less than half of what Kirby Air Riders managed. It’s important to note these are only physical sales too, as Nintendo doesn’t report digital figures.

These sales are in stark contrast to the UK retail chart, where Kirby Air Riders didn’t even break the top 10. We’d like to be patriotic and say we have better taste as a nation, but we can’t because EA Sports FC 26 is at the top of the chart here.

Kirby Air Riders debuted at number 12 in the UK, as revealed by Gfk data for the week ending November 22, 2025. That put it behind Astro Bot (in 11th place), Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Hogwarts Legacy – all of which have been out for over a year.

There isn’t any sales data yet for the US, but Kirby has always been more popular in Japan than anywhere else. The US sales will likely be far kinder than the UK though, as the games have always still been relatively popular there, thanks to the historical popularity of the NES.

By contrast, and thanks to the belated release of the NES in Europe, the UK has always been one of Nintendo’s weakest international markets.

Kirby isn’t the only Nintendo franchise which has a big gulf in popularity across different corners of the world. Splatoon, similarly, is very popular in Japan, which is why we’ve had two sequels over the past decade – and a spin-off due next year. In the West, however, its sales are far from the likes of Mario, Zelda, or Animal Crossing.

Despite these high sales in Japan for Kirby Air Riders, director Masahiro Sakurai ruled out the idea of a sequel earlier this year. ‘Just so you know, we’re not planning any DLC,’ Sakurai said during a Nintendo Direct last month. ‘Everything is here. Also, I’m not planning on making this an ongoing series.

‘I’ve thrown everything I have into this game from the start. So I hope you don’t miss this opportunity.’

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