Gaming Mario Kart 8 has 703,560 customisation possibilities, but which racer is statistically best?

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Everyone has their favourite Mario Kart character to play as, but is there really a best option? A choice which will actually give you an edge to beat your rivals - to go just a little bit faster, or recover that little bit quicker?

Well, yes - some characters are mathmatically better than others. This is even true when you factor in the many different kart pieces - bodies, wheels and gliders - which you can mix and match to tweak your overall racer stat. So how do you pick?

According to a fasincating and beautifully put together piece of research by data scientist Antoine Mayerowitz, there are 703,560 different build options to choose from when you cater to all the different characters and kart pieces. But many of these are carbon copies of each other - so you can quickly whittle that down to just 25,704 distinct statistical options.

From there, it's process of narrowing down the best for different playstyles, which can alternatively favour speed or acceleration. Helpfully, 19th century French polymath Vilfredo Pareto has a clever solution to do just that, and Mayerowitz used it to plot the best outcomes.

 
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