Mario Kart 8 Deluxe launched in 2017 with a strong 48-track lineup, but the Booster Course Pass more than doubled that content over roughly two years of releases. If you are deciding whether to buy the pass, or you just want to know what you are actually getting, here is what the DLC added and how it holds up.
What the Booster Course Pass actually is
The Booster Course Pass is downloadable content for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe that added 48 additional courses to the game, delivered in six waves of eight tracks each between March 2022 and November 2023. With the base game’s original 48 tracks, that brings the total course count to 96, split between 25 original base-game designs, 23 retro remakes in the base game, and the 48 further remastered tracks added by the pass, organized across 24 total cups. It is, by a wide margin, the largest course selection any Mario Kart game has ever offered.
How the waves rolled out
Each wave of the Booster Course Pass added two new cups, with four tracks apiece, for eight tracks per release. Wave 1 arrived on March 18, 2022, and introduced the Golden Dash Cup and Lucky Cat Cup, featuring tracks such as Tour Paris Promenade, 3DS Toad Circuit, N64 Choco Mountain, Wii Coconut Mall, Tour Tokyo Blur, DS Shroom Ridge, GBA Sky Garden, and Ninja Hideaway. Wave 2 followed on August 4, 2022, with the Turnip Cup and Propeller Cup, adding tracks including Tour New York Minute, SNES Mario Circuit 3, N64 Kalimari Desert, DS Waluigi Pinball, and Tour Sydney Sprint among others. Waves 3 through 6 continued this pattern through the rest of 2022 and into 2023, with the sixth and final wave releasing on November 9, 2023, completing all 12 new cups and bringing the DLC’s total to 48 remastered tracks pulled largely from past console Mario Kart entries and Mario Kart Tour.
New characters added alongside the tracks
The Booster Course Pass was not just about courses. Eight additional playable characters were added across the later waves, roughly waves 4 through 6, bringing back racers from earlier entries in the series alongside a collection of new Mii racing suits. If you were missing a specific classic character from the base roster, there is a reasonable chance the pass filled that gap.
What the tracks actually are
Rather than brand-new circuits designed from scratch, the vast majority of Booster Course Pass tracks are remastered versions of courses pulled from earlier games in the series, including entries from the SNES, N64, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, DS, Wii, and 3DS Mario Kart games, as well as a substantial number of tracks originally built for the mobile game Mario Kart Tour. This gives the pass a nostalgia-driven identity: longtime fans get updated, HD versions of tracks they may not have played in over a decade, while newer players get access to course design history they would otherwise have missed entirely.
Price and how to get it
The Booster Course Pass costs 24.99 USD as a standalone purchase for owners of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. However, it comes included at no extra cost for anyone with an active Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership, which bundles the DLC in alongside expanded online features and other first-party game add-ons. If you already subscribe to the Expansion Pack tier, you do not need to buy the pass separately.
Is the Booster Course Pass worth it
For anyone who plays Mario Kart 8 Deluxe regularly, the math is straightforward: 48 additional tracks for a single purchase price essentially doubles your course variety, which matters a lot in a game built around replaying the same circuits repeatedly online and in Grand Prix. Because most tracks are remasters rather than entirely new designs, the pass leans heavily on nostalgia, so how much value you get depends partly on your familiarity with and fondness for older Mario Kart entries. Players who only ever touch the base game’s original 48 tracks and have no interest in retro content will get comparatively less out of the purchase, but for online play specifically, having double the track pool makes races feel far less repetitive over time.
If you already pay for Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, there is effectively no reason not to use the pass since it is already included in your subscription. If you do not subscribe and are deciding between a one-time DLC purchase or the ongoing subscription cost, base that decision on how much you value the other Expansion Pack perks, such as access to N64 and Genesis game libraries, rather than the Booster Course Pass alone.
For more on how Mario Kart 8 Deluxe compares to the newer Mario Kart World on Switch 2, check out our complete Mario Kart guide.
Bottom line
The Booster Course Pass is one of the more substantial pieces of DLC in Nintendo’s recent history simply by volume, doubling the track count of an already large game. Whether it is worth the standalone price largely comes down to how much replay value you want to add to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and whether you already have access through a Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription.