If you’ve ever been on the receiving end of a blue shell in Mario Kart, you know that it can be one of the more stressful gaming situations, as you watch your lead disintegrate in a big ol’ explosion just before the finish line. What you might not know, apparently, is that the classic Nintendo title is actually the most stressful, beating out Fifa, Fortnite, and CoD in a recent study.
That’s right, Mario Kart’s stress levels are significantly higher on average than when compared even to titles infamous for how they can make kids and grown-ups tilt like nothing else. According to the study from the US group Bonusfinder, over 30 minutes of Mario Kart play, the average BPM increase sat at 32.81%, compared to Fifa’s slightly lower 31.25% and Fortnite’s surprisingly low 26.56%.
However, it seems that while Mario Kart reigns supreme as the most consistently stressful game, for individual moments of dramatically increased heart rate, Dark Souls is the champion of champions. Beating out Mario Kart’s most dramatic peak increase of 73.44% is both Dark Souls at a staggering 98.44%, closely followed by Fall Guys at a surprising 95.11%. It doesn’t say in the methodology which particular parts of the game each participant played, but by the Dark Souls numbers, we can only guess they all tried to take on Ornstein and Smough.
Still, interestingly enough Mario Kart manages to beat FIFA in the heart rate increase stats too, with the soccer simulator languishing on a 67.19% increase. There’s only a few percentage points between the two, but you can still take that as evidence that a last lap blue shell is a good bit worse than going a goal down in the final minute. All I know is that both will still surely end up resulting in a few more broken controllers.
There you have it, all you need to know about Mario Kart stress levels and how they compare to other industry giants. To get connected with your friends to play some online laps, see our Zoom download and WhatsApp download guides.
