Someone has found the best driver combination for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe through science

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has been with us for quite a few years, with the franchise being even older, and as such everyone who’s ever played swears by they selection of driver and kart to claim they are simply “the best”. Well, just how right are they really? One scientist saw the enormous roster of choices available in the game and set out to figure out the objective truth.

And as it turns out, while there is not one singular best option, by applying some classic math to the problem data scientist Antoine Mayerowitz managed to graph out al 703,560 different combinations of characters and kart pieces (including body, wheels, and gliders), mapping out their stats to find out what the best options are according to each player’s preferences.

The study is available for all to see on Mayerowitz own website, in which they go into great detail about the entire study. Utilizing the Pareto method, created back in the 19th century by French polymath Vilfredo Pareto, the scientist managed to find the absolute best choices of characters according to their stats. As each driver has different top speed and acceleration they looked to find every option that was at the top of the “max utility curve”, meaning the ones who are never overshadowed by any other character. Specifically, a couple of options are objectively worse than the rest (like Koopa Trooper).

Right at the middle of this curve stands Cat Peach, alongside Villager (female), Inkling Girl, and Diddy Kong, all of which share the exact same stats. However, these are the ones that excel at both attributes without losing to other characters. These are the most balanced, but for example, Bowser and Wario share the “fastest” position, while having the worst acceleration of them all, while Toadette is the slowest of the best, but has the highest acceleration of any other character.

This same kind of charting was performed with every option in the game. By removing duplicate stats from each piece, they reduced the huge number of possibilities mentioned above down to 25,704 options. Through the use of the Pareto method, they found 585 distinct builds that are at the top of the curve, the best in their categories. And from there they managed to pinpoint the 14 most “efficient” options, all of which can be considered the best across a wide variety of playstyles.

You can find the many results in the website, but as it turns out the results coincide with the most popular selection used by many professional Mario Kart players, which has been dominating online matches for quite a while now: Peach, the Teddy Buggy kart, Roller wheels, and Cloud Glider.