4 Hours of Mario Kart World Music Just Dropped

One hundred and thirty tracks. Four hours and thirteen minutes of continuous music. That's what landed on Nintendo Music today when the Mario Kart World soundtrack went live on the app, and if you think that sounds like a lot for a racing game, you'd be right.

According to the app's Version 1.6.0 update notes, as reported by Nintendo Life, the full Mario Kart World OST is now available to all Nintendo Switch Online subscribers through the Nintendo Music app. Nintendo also confirmed that free roam tracks are planned to be added via future updates, meaning the already massive tracklist isn't even complete yet.

I've spent years listening to Mario Kart soundtracks while working, and the series has always punched above its weight musically. But 130 tracks with a runtime that rivals a lot of full albums stacked together is a different scale entirely. For comparison, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's soundtrack, including all the DLC wave tracks, doesn't come close to that number. Whatever Nintendo's sound team did with World, they clearly treated every course, every menu, every moment as an opportunity to compose something new rather than recycling themes.

Now Playing in Your Browser

The soundtrack drop wasn't the only thing in this update. Nintendo released a video alongside Version 1.6.0 showing that Nintendo Music now works in web browsers, not just on phones. The update also adds iPad support, CarPlay compatibility for playing through your car's built-in display, and Siri search so you can ask for a specific track by name.

Web browser support is the one that matters most here. Nintendo Music has been a surprisingly good app since launch, but locking it to mobile meant you couldn't just pull it up on a laptop while gaming or working. That limitation is gone now. CarPlay is a nice bonus for anyone who wants Coconut Mall blasting through their car speakers on a commute, but browser access is the real quality-of-life win.

Mario Kart World joins a growing library of Switch 2 soundtracks already on the service, including Kirby Air Riders and sample tracks from Donkey Kong Bananza. The app also houses the older Mario Kart soundtracks, so you can go from SNES-era bleeps to whatever orchestral chaos World is doing in a single playlist.

I think Nintendo Music remains one of the most underrated perks of a Switch Online subscription. Most platform holders treat game soundtracks as an afterthought, something you might find on Spotify if a publisher bothers to upload it. Nintendo built an entire app around it, and they keep adding to it with real consistency.

Nintendo treating Mario Kart World like a cultural event rather than just a game launch makes sense given how the series sells. But the music side of it marketing and more like respect for the composers' work. Dropping 130 tracks into an app that any subscriber can access, on phones, tablets, browsers, and car screens, is a better deal than most dedicated music services offer for game soundtracks. And they're still adding the free roam tracks on top of that.