Similar to the test performed on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild during its launch period, testing has confirmed that the Switch’s battery in portable mode will last for a little over 3 hours when playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

The test was conducted with a full charge and with screen brightness set to 30%. The exact time was 3 hours, 9 minutes and 20 seconds of playtime – similar to the battery life when playing Breath of the Wild, which is almost exactly 3 hours.

Source

wonder what it will be with the wifi turned on

Fitting, considering how much I've always considered Mario Kart games draining.

It isn't surprising, in any case. This pretty much will be the terrible but standard duration of the Switch battery for most demanding games.

Seems the Nintendo heavy hitters are going to consistently give us the same amount of time. 3 hours is quite good for me. I'd only ever use portable mode on occasion.

3 hours seems like a pretty good number for a game like MK8. I can't imagine I'd play for that long anyways.

The N3DS and Vita don't fare much better...

Heck, even phones don't fare any better if you play games for that long.

Can't speak for Vita, as I haven't played with it, but I too loathe my 3DS and my mobile's battery life.

Makes sense to me. I guess it 3 hours will be for most AAA games.

Although 30% is kinda low

About what I expected tbh.

Guess this will be the average for bigger games then