Polygon’s Switchboard column this week ran through the Mario Kart 8 4.0 update, which somehow, twelve years after launch, added enough new content to trigger a wave of new tournaments on Discord and at local esports bars. Nintendo’s kart racer refuses to die, and neither does the community that runs brackets for it.
If you play in a tournament, or you run one, or you just want to grind rank in a mobile kart game between rounds, we picked seven Android apps that cover the whole flow: playing on your phone, tracking your own placement, running brackets and coordinating with your league.
What to look for
- Bracket management. Single-elimination and double-elim with clean seeding.
- Live standings. Attendees should be able to check their next match without asking the TO.
- Score capture. Photos of a screen or a manual leaderboard entry, without spreadsheet chaos.
- Chat integration. Discord webhooks or in-app broadcasts.
- A phone-first kart game. For between-round practice.
Quick comparison
| App | Bracket handling | Score input | Broadcast | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mario Kart Tour | N/A (game) | N/A | N/A | Free |
| Kart Racing Ultimate | N/A (game) | N/A | N/A | Free |
| Real Racing 3 | N/A (game) | N/A | N/A | Free |
| Challonge | Full | Manual | Web share | Free |
| Toornament | Full | Manual and photo | Twitch integration | Free / paid |
| Discord | Community chat | Bot integration | Voice | Free |
| Google Sheets | Custom | Manual | Web share | Free |
1. Mario Kart Tour — Best mobile kart game
Mario Kart Tour is Nintendo’s official mobile kart racer. The tour system rotates courses and characters every fortnight and there are ranked multiplayer cups for anyone who wants to push their global position.
For between-match warmup at a live tournament, it is the obvious pick. Short races, tight controls, no burdensome unlocks needed to get started.
Where it falls short: the gacha layer is real. Stick to the ranked cups and ignore the pipe.
Pricing: free with a store and an optional Gold Pass.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play
Bottom line: the phone-native kart game. Between-round warmup handled.
2. Kart Racing Ultimate — Best offline kart game
Kart Racing Ultimate is a straight-shot kart racer with local tracks, split-screen for Bluetooth-connected phones, and no live-service overhead. If your Wi-Fi is bad at the venue, this is what you fire up.
Where it falls short: ad-supported. Skippable with a small unlock.
Pricing: free with paid ad removal.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play
Bottom line: the offline pick when the venue’s Wi-Fi is on fire.
3. Real Racing 3 — Best serious mobile racer
Real Racing 3 is not a kart game — it is EA’s long-running phone-native driving sim — but it earns a spot for anyone whose local tournament also runs a “clean laps only” open bracket. The driving model rewards technique and the online multiplayer is clean.
Where it falls short: the campaign gating is heavy. Stick to time-trial and multiplayer.
Pricing: free with a store.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play
Bottom line: the sim pick for the serious-driving half of a mixed-format tournament.
4. Challonge — Best free bracket manager
Challonge is the veteran bracket web tool and its Android client covers the essentials. Single-elim, double-elim, group stages, custom seeding, score entry. Every bracket has a public URL you can share.
For a small tournament — up to 32 racers — it does everything for free. Larger events can push into the paid tier.
Where it falls short: no on-site score capture from a phone photo. Manual entry.
Pricing: free with a paid Premier tier for larger tournaments.
Download: available on Google Play under “Challonge” from Challonge LLC.
Bottom line: the tournament organiser’s default.
5. Toornament — Best modern alternative
Toornament covers similar ground with a more modern UI and better Twitch integration for streamed tournaments. The mobile app handles registration, check-ins, live standings, and score submission with photo evidence.
Where it falls short: feature parity with the web app is not 100 percent. Some advanced settings still need a browser.
Pricing: free with a paid organiser tier for extra features.
Download: available on Google Play under “Toornament”.
Bottom line: the pick if your tournament goes on a stream.
6. Discord — Best team and league comms
Discord is the coordination layer for almost every live kart tournament that lasts longer than an afternoon. Voice channels for team huddles, text for match-call announcements, and bot integrations that pull the current bracket from Challonge or Toornament into the server.
Where it falls short: if you do not set up channel permissions, chaos.
Pricing: free with an optional Nitro subscription.
Download: Aptoide · Google Play
Bottom line: where the actual tournament conversation happens.
7. Google Sheets — Best custom-format fallback
Google Sheets is not a tournament app, but every regular TO has a template. Points-based league standings, cumulative time trials over multiple weeks, driver-vs-driver head-to-head records — none of that fits neatly into a Challonge bracket.
A shared sheet with view access for players and edit access for the TO covers every custom format.
Where it falls short: it is a spreadsheet. Design is on you.
Pricing: free with a Google account.
Download: available on Google Play under “Google Sheets” from Google.
Bottom line: the fallback for anything the bracket tools cannot express.
How to choose
Install Challonge first if you run tournaments — it is the reference. Add Toornament if you also stream. Use Discord for coordination and Google Sheets for custom formats. For phone-native practice between rounds, install Mario Kart Tour; use Kart Racing Ultimate when the venue Wi-Fi is unreliable.
FAQ
Which app is best for a Mario Kart 8 tournament?
Challonge for the bracket, Discord for coordination, and Google Sheets for any custom format the bracket tool cannot handle.
Do these apps run on the Nintendo Switch?
Challonge and Toornament are web-based, so the Switch browser can view them. Native Android apps run on Android only.
How many players can Challonge handle for free?
Challonge’s free tier scales well beyond a typical local tournament. Paid tiers unlock some advanced organiser features rather than a hard player cap.
Is Mario Kart Tour still active?
Yes. Nintendo continues to update the tour rotation and multiplayer cups. It remains the closest official mobile answer to Mario Kart 8.
Are any of these on iPhone?
Mario Kart Tour, Real Racing 3, Challonge, Toornament, Discord and Google Sheets all ship for iOS. Kart Racing Ultimate is Android-only.
