In Mario Kart World's team-based Knockout Tour, the winning team is the one with the highest combined score across all its drivers, not necessarily the team whose racer finishes first. Individual placement determines the points: 1st earns 50, 2nd earns 40, 3rd earns 35 and 4th earns 30. Drivers knocked out at the first checkpoint get just 1 point. This rule came to Nintendo Switch 2 with the free version 1.5.0 update, announced by Nintendo in Brazil on January 21, 2026.
How are team points calculated?
Each of the 24 entrants earns points based on their overall placing. When the event ends, the game adds up every member's points and compares the team totals. Winning the individual race therefore does not guarantee the team victory. Even drivers eliminated before the finish contribute to the score.
| Placement or outcome | Points per driver |
|---|---|
| 1st place | 50 |
| 2nd place | 40 |
| 3rd place | 35 |
| 4th place | 30 |
| Eliminated at the first checkpoint (21st to 24th) | 1 |
Nintendo explicitly published these values. The page consulted does not provide a complete text breakdown for the intermediate placements, from 5th through 20th. The examples below therefore do not invent point values for those positions.
What happens at the checkpoints?
Knockout Tour begins with 24 drivers and has five checkpoints. The bottom four are eliminated at each one, leaving 20, then 16, 12, eight and finally four racers. Elimination remains individual, even though victory is decided by team totals. Near each checkpoint, the top-right display indicates who made it through, using team colors.
Players can set up two teams of 12, three teams of eight or four teams of six in online rooms or via local wireless play. CPU racers fill any vacant slots. Nintendo's stated connectivity and subscription requirements apply to online play.
Three examples of how a team can win
Example 1: the top two finishes alone are not decisive. In a four-team race, if two Blue drivers take 1st and 2nd, they contribute 50 + 40 = 90 points. If two Green drivers finish 3rd and 4th, they contribute 35 + 30 = 65 points. These are only the contributions of the two drivers mentioned on each team, not the final team totals: the other four members of each team can still change the outcome.
Example 2: the winner's team can struggle. Imagine that, on a six-driver team, one racer finishes 1st while four teammates are knocked out at the first checkpoint. Those five known results add up to 50 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 54 points; the sixth driver's contribution is still unknown. On another team, the 2nd-, 3rd- and 4th-place results alone are worth 40 + 35 + 30 = 105 points. This is not a complete simulated scoreboard: the comparison shows why an individual victory is not enough.
Example 3: one team takes all four final places. If one team occupies 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, its finalists earn 50 + 40 + 35 + 30 = 155 points. Nintendo states that if all four drivers passing the last checkpoint belong to the same team, that team is guaranteed to win, regardless of the remaining results.
How can you follow the race after elimination?
An eliminated driver can keep watching, switch the camera to another racer and send preset comments to other spectators. This does not put the driver back in the race or award extra points for being eliminated. To read the developing contest, watch how many drivers from each color survive each checkpoint and check the game's actual combined totals at the finish.
Version note: the scoring rules described here were documented for update 1.5.0. Nintendo announced additional Knockout Tour routes in version 1.8.0 in September 2026, but the route announcement consulted does not set out a new team-points table. This guide was researched on October 28, 2026, and may need updating if later patches change the system.
