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Mario Kart ventured into the mobile scene back in September 2019 with Nintendo’s Mario Kart Tour. As with most mobile games, there are a lot of microtransactions involved, and Mario Kart Tour isn’t an exception to that. There are 223 playable characters and 37 Mii suits (which you can treat as a different character if you like) in Mario Kart Tour — the most extensive roster in any Mario game.

With so many characters to unlock, it can seem a bit overwhelming. But here’s how to unlock characters in Mario Kart Tours.

How to unlock characters in Mario Kart Tour

Dr. Mario in Mario Kart Tour humping from his Pill Kart
Provided by Nintendo

Unlike other iterations of Mario Kart, where you can simply unlock characters by completing specific tasks, Mario Kart Tour approaches it via the Daily Spotlight, Spotlight Banners, and Mii Racing Suit Shop. You can purchase characters in these shops via Rubies, which you can acquire by playing through the game and completing challenges. If you don’t want to do all the grinding, you can purchase Rubies with real money.

Daily Spotlight, Spotlight Banners, and Mii Racing Suit Shop, explained

Rosalina drifting in Mario Kart Tour
Provided by Nintendo

Spotlight Banner offers players to buy Tour-specific characters until the Tour ends. Here’s an example from the Exploration Tour (2023), which ran from February 7 to 21.

  • Peach (Explorer) (Week 1 Banner)
  • Light-Blue Shy Guy (Explorer) (Week 2 Banner)

Meanwhile, The Daily Spotlight Shop offers players a daily rotating pool of characters (from previous tours). The pool renews with a new set of characters every two or so weeks.

Examples of Daily Spotlight Mario Kart Tour Characters (2023)

Odds: 7.2046% Daily Spotlight Appearance

  • Captain Toad
  • Toadette (Explorer)
  • Petey Piranha

Odds: 4.8031% Daily Spotlight Appearance

  • Mario (Classic)
  • Daisy (Fairy)
  • Peach (Explorer)
  • Cat Peach
  • Daisy (Swimwear)
  • Peach (Happi)
  • Tanooki Mario
  • Luigi (Golf)
  • Cat Mario
  • Cat Luigi
  • Daisy (Sailor)
  • Toadette (Sailor)
  • Luigi (Knight)
  • Kitsune Luigi
  • King Bob-omb
  • Kamek

Odds: 0.1921% Daily Spotlight Appearance

  • Yoshi (Gold Egg)
  • Gold Koopa (Freerunning)
  • Dry Bones (Gold)
  • Dry Bowser (Gold)
  • Shy Guy (Gold)
  • King Boo (Gold
  • King Bob-omb (Gold)
  • Chargin’ Chuck (Gold)

Mii Racing Suit Shop Mario Kart Tour characters

In the Mii Racing Suit Shop, you purchase Mii Racing Suits instead. Even though they’re not really characters, varying parameters are attached to the suits anyway. Consider them as characters with unique skills.

  • Brown Mii Racing Suit (Banner Item)
  • Roaring Racer Mii Racing Suit
  • Black Mii Racing Suit
  • Castle Mii Racing Suit
  • Hammer Bro Mii Racing Suit
  • Goomba Mii Racing Suit
  • Ice Cream Mii Racing Suit
  • Petey Piranha Mii Racing Suit
  • Chain Chomp Mii Racing Suit
  • Pastry Chef Mii Racing Suit

This is the entire pool of the Exploration Tour. You will only be able to get these characters throughout the Tour. If your favorite character isn’t in the pool, you’re out of luck. You must wait for the next tour and hope your target character will appear in it.