Animal Crossing: New Horizons

• 1. Introduction

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  Before anyone could play Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a delay wiped more than US$1 billion off Nintendo's market value. When the company announced the postponement, its stock value fell by 3.5 percent. That is a strange amount of weight for a Nintendo Switch game built around catching fish, planting flowers and arranging furniture. New Horizons was the fifth main installment of its series, following Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

  What turns a quiet routine of small chores into a record-setting hit? Why did its designers work so hard to stop players from fooling the clock? And how did a game conceived years earlier end up arriving just as much of the world was told to stay home?

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• 2. Life on the Island

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  Tom Nook sells the player a getaway package, and that purchase starts everything. The player's customized villager moves to a deserted island with a tent and a few other essentials from Nook. Two randomly chosen anthropomorphic villagers bought the same package and settle in alongside the player. After that first push, the game turns non-linear. Only a few limitations remain, and they loosen as the player advances.

  Fruit and wood are free for the taking, and D.I.Y. crafting turns them into furniture and tools. The player can also catch bugs and fish, plant trees and flowers, break rocks for resources, and swim out to catch deep-sea creatures. Some organisms appear only during a limited time of year. The game runs in real time. Its weather follows the seasons of the Northern or Southern Hemisphere, depending on where the player really lives. That was a first for the series.

  Simple tasks earn Nook Miles, which Resident Services exchanges for premium rewards such as furniture, recipes and clothing. Bells, the franchise's staple currency, pay for other goods and services. Early on, Dodo Airlines opens an airport. Tickets bought with Nook Miles fly the player to vacant islands to harvest resources and meet other villagers, some of whom can be invited home.

  As the player makes progress, shopkeepers settle on the island. Blathers, the museum owner, displays the fish, bugs, sea creatures, fossils and art the player collects. Sisters Mabel and Sable sell clothing and player-made accessories. Timmy and Tommy run Nook's Cranny, a store for furniture and everyday conveniences that stocks more items per day over time. Tom Nook and Isabelle eventually run a Town Hall, and the old tents and shops grow into permanent structures that can still be moved.

  The island receives a star rating out of five, usually starting at one star. Reaching three stars brings the popular musician K.K. Slider to perform a concert, and the credits roll to mark the game's "end". Play continues, though. The player gains tools to construct and destroy cliffs, bodies of water and paths, colloquially called terraforming.

  Up to four players can share an island locally and up to eight online, with online visits arriving through Dodo Airlines. Amiibo cards and figures can invite a villager for a temporary stay, and that guest can be convinced to move in. Only one island exists per Switch system, though other user accounts may join as secondary players.

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• 3. Seasons and Updates

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  April 2020 brought Bunny Day, the first update, based on Easter. Because the game depends on the changing seasons, updates kept arriving with new seasonal items, events and occasionally new features. Most were loosely tied to national holidays. Nature Day echoed Earth Day, while Turkey Day and Toy Day stood in for Thanksgiving and Christmas, alongside May Day and Halloween. Each update also featured popular characters from earlier Animal Crossing games, and the player's island was often decorated for the occasion.

  Nintendo also added themed items from other media, such as Mario outfits and decor for the franchise's 35th anniversary. A late July 2020 update added Nintendo Switch Online cloud saving. It lets players recover their data if a Switch is broken or lost.

  In an October 2021 Nintendo Direct focused on New Horizons, Nintendo announced a version 2.0 update, then described as the last free update. It arrived on the 3rd of November 2021 with the returning characters Kapp'n, Brewster and Harvey. Kapp'n waits with a boat at the pier once the island reaches three stars, and his Mystery tours lead to deserted islands holding rare resources. Brewster runs a cafe called The Roost in a corner of the museum, where a cup of coffee costs 200 bells. Harvey's Plaza offers new purchasable items and services from shops. Players could also dig up gyroids, set ordinances and cook dishes that give power-ups.

  Two days later, on the 5th of November 2021, came the paid expansion Happy Home Paradise. Like the 2015 spinoff Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, it sends the player to a distant island to design vacation homes for villagers, plus places such as a school and a restaurant. Lottie returns and two new characters appear. Wallpaper can now cover a single wall rather than all four, and villagers can live with each other. The expansion is included in the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack or can be bought separately.

  In October 2025, Nintendo announced a Nintendo Switch 2 edition together with a free version 3.0 update. Both were released on the 15th of January 2026. The update added a resort hotel and slumber islands. It also brought bulk crafting, mass removal of flowers and custom designs, and the ability to craft with resources kept in storage. Classic game systems let players try certain games, in the spirit of the original Animal Crossing. New collaboration items featured Lego, The Legend of Zelda and Splatoon, and the latter two came with new villagers. Resetti returned to offer a cleaning service.

  The Switch 2 edition adds 4K resolution, mouse controls through the Joy-Con 2 for interiors and custom designs, and a megaphone that uses the system's microphone to locate villagers. Multiplayer grows to 12 players when everyone is on a Switch 2.

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• 4. Designing Against Shortcuts

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  Aya Kyogoku, the game director, has said that work on New Horizons began in 2012, shortly after New Leaf first released for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan. Concepts were forming before anyone had even imagined the Nintendo Switch. Hisashi Nogami and Katsuya Eguchi returned as producers. A new main Animal Crossing game for the Switch was confirmed in a Nintendo Direct on the 13th of September 2018, with an unspecified 2019 release.

  Kyogoku credited the series' success to making each game different enough from the last to attract newcomers while keeping the core idea for returning players. She and Nogami chose a deserted island to set this game apart from earlier ones, which took place in established villages. An empty island removed the series' usual parameters and allowed more freedom to shape the world. Advancing hardware also made ideas like internet play and multiplayer possible.

  Kyogoku pointed to D.I.Y. crafting as a cure for a specific problem: running out of things to do once the in-game stores close. She said it fits the theme by having players use the natural environment to their advantage. She also noted players who came to the series through mobile apps such as Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. For them, the team built Nook Miles, which shows what activities are possible by rewarding them. Because it also pays out for common tasks and cheap materials, players are not pushed into hunting only for expensive ones.

  The team had watched two habits in earlier games. Players restarted their save files again and again, hoping for a better island shape, so landscaping now lets them reshape the island easily. Others time-traveled, changing the console clock to skip ahead in a real-time game. To discourage that, the team put no wait times on landscaping and crafting. Seasonal events were tied to updates instead of built in from the start, so nobody could jump ahead to exclusive items. The bank's interest rate was also lowered to reduce the incentive. The developers considered playing without time travel ideal, but they did not shun the idea entirely.

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• 5. The Imagination Gap

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  Koji Takahashi, the art director, built the look of the island around a philosophy called "trigger of play". The idea was that something within the player's view or reach should always invite exploration. The island is drawn from a 45-degree angle, like a cylinder, a curved perspective in which events in the background tempt the player to investigate. Takahashi believed a complicated, realistic style would overload players with information and make progress harder. Simplicity also lets many copies of one object, such as flowers, sit close together, and lets plain objects complement each other.

  The second idea was the "imagination gap". By leaving empty space and keeping the graphics simple, with little natural complexity, the game has players fill the gap with their own ideas, Takahashi explains. That is also why the grass looks like a checkerboard. Earlier titles used the pattern because their hardware was limited. New Horizons kept it because it works as a form of expression and gives players a canvas for their own plans.

  Art designer Hiromi Sugimoto approached furniture as a motivator. She wanted pieces that inspire hard work and make players want to show off their achievements to others. Each model was given a likeness that shows exactly what to expect, combining common ideas of how people picture an object. The player's imagination then fills in smaller details about how the item could be used. Sugimoto also made furniture customizable, so islands would differ from one another and give players a reason to visit and see unique ideas.

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• 6. Launch and Records

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  On the 11th of June 2019, the E3 Nintendo Direct revealed the game's title and first trailer. The release then slipped to the 20th of March 2020. Yoshiaki Koizumi said Nintendo had to ask players to wait a little longer than it had itself expected, so the game could be the best it could be. Doug Bowser, president of Nintendo of America, named a desire to avoid crunch and keep a healthy work-life balance for employees as the primary reason.

  That date collided with id Software's Doom Eternal. Expecting heavy demand and mindful of the COVID-19 pandemic, GameStop began selling Doom Eternal a day early, on the 19th, to minimize crowding. The stark contrast in tone between the two games delighted fans, who made light-hearted crossover art of Doomguy and Isabelle as "best friends".

  Japan opened with more than 1.88 million physical copies, breaking the record held by Pokémon Sword and Shield for the biggest Switch debut in the region. The second week added 720,791 physical copies, more than New Leaf sold in its first week. By April 2020, 3,895,159 physical copies had sold there.

  In North America, New Horizons was the best-selling game of March 2020 and the second-bestselling game of 2020. It passed the lifetime sales of all previous Animal Crossing games. Its launch month ranked third among known Nintendo-published launch months since the NPD Group began tracking sales in 1995, behind Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. In the United Kingdom, physical launch sales were roughly four times those of New Leaf. They were triple those of the runner-up, the new entry Doom Eternal. In Germany, more than 200,000 copies sold within a few days, earning a Platinum Sales Award from the trade association GAME.

  SuperData Research, a division of Nielsen, estimated that five million digital copies sold worldwide in March 2020. That set a record for digital units in a single calendar month, passing Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Nintendo reported 11.77 million units within 12 days by the 31st of March 2020, and 13.41 million after six weeks. The company called it the best start ever for a Switch title. Sales reached 22.4 million by June 2020 and 26.04 million by September 2020.

  On the 9th of August 2020, the game was reported to be the second-highest selling game of all time in Japan, behind only Pokémon Red and Blue. In November 2020 it became the fastest game to pass six million copies there. Global digital sales brought in US$654 million by the end of 2020. In the United States it ranked third for the year behind Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. It was also the best-selling Nintendo game in physical copies there since 2010's Wii Fit Plus. In a December 2020 Polygon interview, Doug Bowser said it sold "well beyond expectations".

  By March 2021, the total reached 32.63 million units, second among Switch games behind only Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Estimated first-year revenue of US$2 billion was the fifth highest for any video game. After the 2.0 update, Nintendo reported 34.85 million units. A February 2022 report put the figure at 37.62 million, more than the rest of the Animal Crossing games combined. On the 9th of November 2022, it became the best-selling game of all time in Japan. By the 31st of December 2025, total sales stood at 49.32 million copies.

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• 7. The Critics' Verdict

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  Metacritic gave the Switch edition "universal acclaim", making it the highest-rated game in the series on the site. OpenCritic judged critical approval to be "mighty". Nintendo Life and Pocket Gamer awarded perfect scores. One sore point was review bombing aimed at how the game handles Switch profiles, since only one player per console can experience the full game.

  Reviewers liked the Nook Miles system. Dann Sullivan of Pocket Gamer enjoyed the "optional direction" it gave, and USGamer joked that nobody could complain about having nothing to do. Nintendo Life noted that in the D.I.Y. system no resource is useless. Russ Frushtick of Polygon praised the unrestricted creativity of laying out furniture and buildings. He said the result was a "true representation of the player who created it." Martin Robinson, Eurogamer's deputy editor, said the improvements gave the game a clearer structure and better cohesion than ever.

  GameSpot and Game Informer praised the control over where buildings and bridges go. The Island Designer App was lauded for creating natural structures, though some complained that players could reshape the island but not expand it. GamesRadar+ liked that old characters and concepts returned alongside new mechanics. TechRadar wrote that "everything is sharp, smooth, colorful and a big improvement on previous releases."

  Steven Scaife of Slant Magazine was more critical. He argued that "By consolidating so much power in the hands of an individual player, New Horizons threatens to upend the Animal Crossing vision of community living." Many reviewers also objected to time restrictions in the early hours, since most resources replenish the next day. Samuel Claiborn of IGN had refused to time travel in earlier games. He was tempted to set the clock ahead 15 days once more tools unlocked. The German outlet 4Players, by contrast, enjoyed the lack of time pressure and the option to time travel.

  At the Japan Game Awards 2020, the game won both the Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Award and Game of the Year, and received an Award for Excellence. It won Best Family Game at The Game Awards 2020 and Nintendo Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards. The Famitsu Dengeki Game Awards named it Game of the Year. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences gave it Family Game of the Year at the 24th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards. At the 2021 British Academy Games Awards, it won Game Beyond Entertainment and Best Multiplayer and was nominated for four others.

  Enthusiasm cooled for some players. According to Vice Media and VentureBeat, those who played heavily after launch tended to burn out, and by about six weeks in they were playing significantly less. Vice noted that the game was never designed for constant play, adding that "the pandemic isn't giving people much of a choice." Jeff Grubb of VentureBeat found small hindrances more frustrating the more he met them. Even so, both outlets still viewed the game positively by April 2020.

  A year later, Andrew Webster of The Verge and Brendan Lowry of iMore revisited their reviews. Both said that island progression stalling after a few months made returning hard to enjoy, and The Verge called the Nook Miles system "an afterthought". Both still liked the daily island tasks as a small distraction from the real world. By the November 2021 update, Nicole Carpenter of Polygon reported that fans were torn about restarting their islands from scratch.

  Happy Home Paradise fared well. Lisa Segarra of Kotaku called the villager-home prompts "exhilarating" and said they "sparked inspiration". Kate Gray of Nintendo Life compared the expansion and free update to "a big lick of paint over the whole game", though critics lamented the finality of the update. The Switch 2 edition drew a cooler reception from Alex Olney of Nintendo Life. He noted a resolution boost but a frame rate that still runs at 30 fps, calling it "not an especially exciting upgrade".

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• 8. A Pandemic Refuge

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  Aya Kyogoku hoped the game would be an "escape" for fans in quarantine. The developers were very disappointed that the release cycle overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic. They emphasized a global release so that players could make international connections.

  Louryne Strampe of WIRED said the game was exactly what she needed for her mental health, and that she and her colleagues found solace visiting each other's islands. An NBC News op-ed declared it "the coronavirus distraction we needed". Imad Khan of The New York Times called it a "phenomenon" and "a conveniently timed piece of whimsy, particularly for millennials." Twitter revealed in early January 2021 that it was the most tweeted-about game of 2020.

  Players used the island in unexpected ways. Funerals, weddings and graduations were held in the game, and a talk show titled Animal Talking was born there. The release also lifted the popularity of the term cozy game, which spread to farm sims such as Stardew Valley. Colin Campbell of GamesIndustry.biz found that only "a handful" of the "dozens" of games described as "cozy" on Steam were released before 2020.

  Politics followed. The Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign released official digital yard signs for players to decorate their islands. Democracy activists in Hong Kong, including Joshua Wong, used the game as a platform to protest virtually. In response, the game was removed from online stores in China such as Taobao, where it had been sold on the grey market. On the 19th of November 2020, Nintendo announced new guidelines that banned using the game for political activities.

  In March 2021, the National Videogame Museum began recording the game's impact in the "Animal Crossing Diaries". The records hold visuals, audio and interviews from players who tracked their progress through 2020. Curator Lex Roberts said the goal was to capture what made the game so popular for people who played after restrictions eased. The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation asked the museum to "collect the history as it's happening" and funded the work. The website opened in September 2021 and covers the 18 months after release.

  The game spread into other media. The manga Atsumare Dōbutsu no Mori: Nonbiri Shima Dayori, written and illustrated by Minori Katō, began in the magazine Ciao on the 28th of December 2019. It follows a villager named Hana who moves to an unpopulated island. A second manga series launched in the June 2020 issue of Coro Coro Comics, and Viz Media published its first volume in English as Deserted Island Diary on the 14th of September 2021. Cho Hanayo's comic strip Nook Tails, starring Tom Nook, Timmy and Tommy, began on the game's Japanese website on the 15th of October 2019. Guidebooks in Japan, some running well over 1000 pages, drew large queues despite shelter-in-place orders and prompted mass reselling online.

  In January 2021, ColourPop released a makeup collection inspired by the characters, and in March 2021 Build-A-Bear Workshop announced a plush collection. Two Japanese aquariums held themed events with Nintendo. Hakkeijima Sea Paradise in Yokohama ran one in July and August 2021, and Umigatari Joetsu Aquarium in Niigata Prefecture ran another for three months in the summer of 2023. Both offered a stamp rally and exclusive merchandise, with Easter eggs hidden in their regular exhibits. A Nintendo aquarium tour then crossed the United States from the 14th of June 2024 to the 28th of February 2025, offering photo ops and character standees.

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