The Super Mario Bros. Movie opens in theaters today and is expected to be a massive box office hit—but the film can’t hold a candle to the content empire the Italian plumber has built up on YouTube over the years.
To celebrate Mario’s next run in the spotlight, YouTube has shared some interesting stats about the gaming icon’s time on the platform, which has now surpassed 100 billion total views on videos ranging from music covers to speedruns.
As the video highlights, some of YouTube’s earliest viral hits revolved around Mario games. You have classics like the VideoGamePianist’s blindfolded covers from across the series to various recreations of game mechanics, food, and more in real life.
According to YouTube, over two million YouTube channels have uploaded at least one video featuring Mario in some form, with more than 2,000 channels specifically dedicated to the universe of the Mushroom Kingdom’s hero. A new Mario video is also uploaded every 20 seconds, with popular titles including Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Super Mario Maker.
Many of YouTube’s biggest creators have spent time playing custom Mario Maker levels over the years—raging and baffled by how cruel some designers can be. It is a huge pull for Japanese viewers, with 60 percent of all views for the game on the platform being from that country alone.
And, whether it be Mario Maker-related or not, arguably the most popular type of Mario content is the speedrun, which has been a staple of the platform since the early days. Now, more speedruns for Mario games are uploaded than any other game series on YouTube.
“From jumping barrels to throwing fireballs to the red shell wall dodge, Mario has been a part of my life and so many people’s lives for a long time,” global head of YouTube Gaming Leo Olebe said in a press release. “The diverse Mario content we see uploaded every day is a testament to the dedicated and passionate community of Mario fans who use their creativity in such fun and exciting ways. We can’t wait to see where the YouTube community takes Mario in the next 100 billion views.”
With the Super Mario Bros. movie likely to be a hit, a spike in uploads surrounding the plumbers and all of their adventures is likely to follow.
Now we just have to wait for the next big game from the franchise to drop before things can really get Star Sprinting.
