Mario Kart World, the flagship launch title for Nintendo’s new Switch 2 console, hit stores on June 5, 2025, promising to revolutionize the kart racer with its expansive Free Roam mode and 24-player races. While fans have been buzzing about the vibrant open-world map—complete with puzzles, off-road shortcuts, and unlockable character outfits—they’ve also unearthed a notable omission: Free Roam does not support local split-screen multiplayer. For a franchise celebrated for its couch co-op heritage, this shortcoming has sparked both confusion and disappointment among players.
When Nintendo unveiled Mario Kart World during an April Direct, the Free Roam mode was billed as a sandbox playground where racers could explore diverse zones, from sunny beaches to icy peaks, discovering hidden challenges and joining friends online. In theory, you could see your friends’ icons on the map, “warp” to their location, and then team up or battle together. But once the game arrived, dataminers and players confirming details for outlets like GameSpot and Kotaku found that Free Roam’s multiplayer is strictly online—no local splitscreen allowed. If you want to share the same couch and TV for an impromptu kart cruise through Mushroom Meadows, you’ll need to stick to classic Grand Prix or VS Race modes.
Industry analysts suggest technical limitations drove this decision. Rendering an open-world environment with dynamic elements—think active item pickups, evolving weather, and seamless transitions between on- and off-road sections—for 24 racers already pushes the Switch 2’s hardware. Splitting that workload across two simultaneous screens on the same console could introduce performance dips or compromise frame rates, something Nintendo wants to avoid, especially for a launch title designed to showcase the system’s 4K output and smooth 60fps gameplay. Similar open-world racers, like Forza Horizon 5, also skip local co-op in their sprawling maps, opting instead for online sessions where each player has a dedicated hardware instance.
Despite the technical rationale, many longtime fans remain vocal on social media and Reddit threads, calling Free Roam’s lack of splitscreen “a betrayal of Mario Kart’s couch co-op roots.” One popular subreddit post lamented, “We were sold an open-world adventure, but I can’t share it with my sibling unless we both have Switch 2 consoles. That’s a letdown.” Others speculate Nintendo might eventually add splitscreen via a post-launch update—after all, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe received new courses and features long after release—but there’s been no official confirmation. Instead, Nintendo has hinted that Free Roam will see fresh content drops, like additional challenges, new zones, and seasonal events, but stops short of addressing local co-op.
In place of local Free Roam, families wanting to play together can still link multiple Switch 2 consoles for a private wireless session, creating an “empty world lobby” that lets you drive around side by side—albeit without interactive objectives. This workaround, however, requires extra hardware and a bit of patience while the match lobby “warms up.” Meanwhile, the remainder of Mario Kart World’s modes—Grand Prix, Knockout Tour, and Time Trials—retain traditional split-screen for up to four players, preserving some of the series’ cherished shared-screen moments. In VS Race mode, up to 24 players can also form teams and duke it out online in short, customizable series.
Beyond the local co-op kerfuffle, Mario Kart World is otherwise receiving praise for redefining what a kart racer can be. Reviewers from Wired to Ars Technica note the game’s “killer app” status, lauding its seamless blending of classic track-based racing with a sprawling Free Roam environment reminiscent of horizon-style racers. The introduction of character customization—unlockable costumes, emotes, and kart skins—adds a layer of personalization missing from previous entries. And with support for the Switch 2’s new GameChat feature, voice chat and live camera streams during races feel more social than ever, albeit necessarily requiring online connections rather than split screens.
The lack of Free Roam local co-op may not be a deal-breaker for all players; those with multiple Switch 2 units can still team up wirelessly, and casual racers can stick to familiar split-screen modes. But for households with a single console and multiple eager siblings, the omission stands out. It underscores a broader shift in gaming toward online-first design, even for franchises once synonymous with living-room competition. Nintendo’s focus on delivering a stable, visually appealing open world likely guided this choice—but a chunk of the community still hopes for a future patch that stitches back in that beloved couch co-op pastime.
