Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Tier List: Ranking All Characters

We have ranked all the characters and tracks in our ultimate Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Tier List to help you do the best in the game.

Without a Mario Kart game, in my opinion, your library on a Nintendo gaming console is lacking. In addition, Mario Kart 8 follows that pattern, so your Nintendo Switch collection should ideally feature it. In our Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Tier List, we’ll rate some of the most crucial elements of the game’s various features.

However, before you start, you should understand what makes Mario Kart 8 a decent game and whether investing your hard-earned money in it is a good idea.

Key Highlights
  • Not including Variations, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe offers up to 41 playable characters along with more than 30 new and old kart tracks. 
  • While Mario Kart 8 Deluxe characters are ranked based on their effectiveness and base skills, the ranking of Tracks is closely linked to the challenges and excitement that each option packs. 
  • The best characters of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe are Wario, Bowser, Dry Bowser, Donkey Kong, King Boo, Gold Mario, Koopa Jr., and Link. At the same time, those that contest as the worst in the game include Baby Rosalina, Baby Peach, and Dry Bones.
  • As far as racing courses/kart tracks are concerned, Waluigi Pinball, Baby Park – GCN, Electrodrome, Sunshine Airport, and Mount Wario stand as the most exciting choices for every player type.
  • To enjoy Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to its fullest, pair the best characters with the most challenging tracks and see your experience boom like never before.

Here’s a summary of the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Tier List ranking all the characters and tracks in the game:

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Tier List Characters and Tracks Ranking Table
TiersCharacters Tracks
S-Tier Wario, Koopa Jr., Dry Bowser, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Gold Mario, King Boo, and Link Waluigi Pinball, Electrodrome, Baby Park – GCN, Sunshine Airport, Mount Wario, Mushroom Gorge, Golden Dash Cup: Coconut Mall – Wii, Bowser’s Castle, Super Bell Subway, Big Blue, Sydney Sprint, Dolphin Shoals, Ribbon Road – GBA, Rainbow Road, Mute City, Melody Motorway – 3DS, and Lucky Cat Cup: Ninja Hideaway
A-Tier Rosalina, Roy, Waluigi, Metal Mario, Pink Gold Peach, Iggy, and Luigi Piranha Plant Pipeway – 3DS, Wild Woods, Koopa City – 3DS, Lucky Cat Cup: Sky Garden – GBA, Dragon Driftway, Golden Dash Cup: Paris Promenade, New York Minute, Hyrule Circuit, Snow Land, Royal Raceway – N64, Yoshi Valley – N64, Lucky Cat Cup: Shroom Ridge – 3DS, Cheep Cheep Beach – DS, Animal Crossing, Wario’s Gold Mine – Wii, Toad Harbour, Cloudtop Cruise, Sky-High Sundae, Shy Guy Falls, and Grumble Volcano – Wii
B-Tier Ludwig, Mario, Cat Peach, Princess Peach, Tanooki Mario, Yoshi, Koopa, and Bowser Jr Ice Ice Outpost, Kalamari Desert – MK64, Golden Dash Cup: Toad Circuit – 3DS, Rainbow Road – N64, Cheese Land – GBA, Excitebike Arena, Golden Dash Cup: Coco Mountain – N64, Lucky Cat Cup: Tokyo Blu, Bone-Dry Dunes, Yoshi Circuit – GCN, Sweet Sweet Canyon, Thwomp Ruins, Wario Stadium – DS, Tick-Tock Clock – DS, Twisted Mansion, and Rainbow Road – SNES
C-Tier Villager, Isabelle, Lakitu, and Larry Sherbet Land – GCN, Mario Circuit, Water Park, Mario Circuit 3 – SMK, and DK Jungle – 3DS
D-Tier Toad, Wendy, Toadette, Baby Daisy, Baby Luigi, Baby Mario, Lemmy, and Shy Guy Moo Moo Meadows – Wii, Dry Dry Desert – GCN, Donut Plains 3 – SNES, Mario Kart Stadium, Toad’s Turnpike – N64, and Mario Circuit – GBA
F-TierBaby Peach, Baby Rosalina, and Dry Bones

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What Makes Mario Kart 8 A Good Game?

Many factors make Mario Kart 8 a wonderful game, but these are the top 5, in my opinion, that makes the game worth getting:

  1. This is the latest Mario Kart game, and its online servers are perfect for multiplayer gaming.
  2. You have many tracks to choose from; it is the most stacked Mario Kart game when it comes to tracks.
  3. The character roster in Mario Kart 8 is big, and you will not get bored by it easily.
  4. There are no concrete dates for the release date of the next Mario Kart game.
  5. In the game, there are several amazing tracks. A track being redone frequently seems unlikely, given the game’s history. My favorite track in the game is wildwood, but I don’t believe it will be included in the upcoming installment.
  6. The fact that you can play the game on the couch with your loved ones makes it a terrific party game.

Now you know why I recommend this game, so let’s move on to our Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Tier List. 

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Tier List Breakdown

Our Tier List would consist of 4 tiers, and we will have two different tier lists. In the first tier list, we will rank all the characters in the game; similarly, in the Tier List, following that, we will rank all the tracks.

Our Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Tier List will consist of four tiers:

  1. S-Tier: We will rank the finest characters and tracks in the game.
  2. A-Tier: In this tier, we will rank the outstanding tracks and characters in the game; they fall short of making the S Tier.
  3. B-Tier: In the B Tier, we will have the average characters and tracks from the game.
  4. C-Tier: We will put the below-average characters and tracks from the game in the C Tier.
  5. D-Tier: We will have the bad characters and tracks from the game in this tier.
  6. F-Tier: We will rank the worst characters and tracks in the game here.

We will start by ranking the game’s best characters in our characters tier list.

Mario Kart 8 Complete Roster

Before jumping onto the character’s tier list, it is good to know about the Roster in the game.

CharacterWeight Class
MarioMedium-Heavy
LuigiMedium-Heavy
PeachMedium
DaisyMedium
RosalinaHeavy
Tanooki MarioMedium
Cat PeachMedium
YoshiMedium
ToadLight
Koopa TroopaLight
Shy GuyLight
LakituLight
ToadetteLight
King BooHeavy
Baby MarioVery Light
Baby LuigiVery Light
Baby PeachVery Light
Baby DaisyVery Light
Baby RosalinaVery Light
Gold MarioHeavy
Pink Gold PeachHeavy
WarioVery Heavy
WaluigiHeavy
Donkey KongHeavy
BowserVery Heavy
Dry BonesVery Light
Bowser Jr.Light
Dry BowserVery Heavy
WendyLight
LudwigMedium Heavy
IggyMedium Heavy
LarryLight
LemmyVery Light
Inkling BoyMedium
MortonVery Heavy
RoyHeavy
LinkHeavy
Inkling GirlMedium
Villager femaleMedium
Villager maleMedium
MiiAny Weight Category
IsabelleLight
Metal MarioHeavy

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S-Tier

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Tier List
S Tier

These characters are the greatest in the game, so choosing them to race with will be simple in all of the game’s racing modes.

Name of the Character
Wario
Koopa Jr.
Dry Bowser
Bowser
Donkey Kong
Gold Mario
King Boo
Link

A-Tier

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Tier List
A Tier

The characters in the A tier of our Mario Kart Deluxe Tier List will make it easy for you to race in the game, but they are not as good as the characters in the S Tier.

Name of the Character
Rosalina
Roy
Waluigi
Metal Mario
Pink Gold Peach
Iggy
Luigi

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B-Tier

Average Characters in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
B Tier

The characters here are good but will be a challenge to race with, considering they have shortcomings that the characters in the A Tier might not have, while certainly, the ones in S Tier are perfect.

Name of the Character
Ludwig
Mario
Cat Peach
Princess Peach
Tanooki Mario
Yoshi
Koopa
Bowser Jr

C-Tier

Below Average Mario Kart 8 Characters
C Tier

The characters in this tier of our Mario Kart Deluxe Tier List are weak but can be fun to play with if you want to take on a challenge after playing with the stronger characters.

Name of the Character
Villager
Isabelle
Lakitu
Larry

D-Tier

Bad Characters from Mario Kart
D Tier

I wouldn’t recommend characters from the D Tier, but they have fun powers that make me play with them periodically. 

Name of the Character
Toad
Wendy
Toadette
Baby Daisy
Baby Luigi
Baby Mario
Lemmy
Shy Guy

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F-Tier 

Worst Characters in Mario Kart
F Tier

The characters in the F Tier of our Mario Kart Deluxe Tier List are the worst characters I would not recommend you to play with.

Name of the Character
Baby Peach
Baby Rosalina
Dry Bones

Now we are done with ranking the best characters from the roster in the game. Therefore we will now move toward the ranking of the tracks. 

Even though it is a bummer that till now, they have not recreated the Wario Colosseum, which might be the greatest ever track in Mario Kart’s history, we have some amazing tracks in the game that you will have a blast with.

Mario Kart 8 initially launched with 48 tracks, but Nintendo promised to bring an additional 48 tracks from 2022 to 2023. So far, there have been two waves in 2022 in which Nintendo has added some brilliant tracks. We have ranked them all below.

TrackRank
Mount WarioS Tier
Sunshine AirportS Tier
Baby Park - GCNS Tier
ElectrodromeS Tier
Waluigi PinballS Tier
Big BlueS Tier
Super Bell SubwayS Tier
Bowser's CastleS Tier
Golden Dash Cup: Coconut Mall - WiiS Tier
Mushroom GorgeS Tier
Mute CityS Tier
Rainbow RoadS Tier
Ribbon Road - GBAS Tier
Dolphin ShoalsS Tier
Sydney SprintS Tier
Lucky Cat Cup: Ninja HideawayS Tier
Melody Motorway - 3DSS Tier
Dragon DriftwayA Tier
Koopa City - 3DS
A Tier
Lucky Cat Cup: Sky Garden - GBAA Tier
Wild WoodsA Tier
Piranha Plant Pipeway - 3DSA Tier
Royal Raceway - N64A Tier
Hyrule CircuitA Tier
Snow LandA Tier
New York MinuteA Tier
Golden Dash Cup: Paris PromenadeA Tier
Wario's Gold Mine - WiiA Tier
Animal CrossingA Tier
Cheep Cheep Beach - DSA Tier
Lucky Cat Cup: Shroom Ridge - 3DSA Tier
Yoshi Valley - N64A Tier
Grumble Volcano - WiiA Tier
Shy Guy FallsA Tier
Sky-High SundaeA Tier
Cloudtop CruiseA Tier
Toad HarbourA Tier
Cheese Land - GBAB Tier
Rainbow Road - N64B Tier
Golden Dash Cup: Toad Circuit - 3DSB Tier
Kalamari Desert - MK64B Tier
Ice Ice OutpostB Tier
Yoshi Circuit - GCNB Tier
Bone-Dry DunesB Tier
Lucky Cat Cup: Tokyo BluB Tier
Golden Dash Cup: Coco Mountain - N64B Tier
Excitebike ArenaB Tier
Twisted MansionB Tier
Tick-Tock Clock - DSB Tier
Wario Stadium - DSB Tier
Thwomp RuinsB Tier
Sweet Sweet CanyonB Tier
Rainbow Road - SNESB Tier
DK Jungle - 3DSC Tier
Mario Circuit 3 - SMKC Tier
Water ParkC Tier
Mario CircuitC Tier
Sherbet Land - GCNC Tier
Toad's Turnpike - N64D Tier
Donut Plains 3 - SNESD Tier
Mario Circuit - GBAD Tier
Moo Moo Meadows - WiiD Tier
Dry Dry Desert - GCND Tier
Mario Kart StadiumD Tier

Mario Kart Tier List Criteria

Our criteria to rank the characters and tracks in the game were very simple. We looked at all characters in the game and compared their abilities over 50 tracks. It took us a very long, and it was a hard judgment to make, but we took the ones who gave the best average in performance over all tracks and ranked them from best to worst.

For the tracks in the game, we played all the available tracks to date. We compared the classic tracks made with the original versions and all the tracks in the current version of the game to determine the ranking of the tracks.

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Muhammad Sanan Khan


With half a decade in Video Game Journalism and an everlasting bond with all things related to video games, Sanan Khan can't even stop himself from blabbering about video games in his sleep. He is also the Founder of TopTierList.

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