That’s a lot of bells. —
In 9.5 months, New Horizons makes up almost half of all Animal Crossing sales.
Kyle Orland
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Fig. 1: New Horizons alone is now responsible for roughly 47 percent of all lifetime Animal Crossing sales.
Fig. 2: Thus far, Switch owners are digging Animal Crossing at a way higher rate than owners of previous Nintendo consoles.
Fig. 3: Only a few other games can match the hardware attach rate of Animal Crossing: New Horizons (though New Horizons’ number may come down as time goes on).
Fig. 4: New Horizons has maintained a monthly sales rate through the majority of its first year of sales that few games can match.
Nintendo’s latest earnings report contained plenty of good news for the company, including the revelation that the Nintendo Switch has now sold nearly 80 million units worldwide. Even more eye-popping, though, is the news that Animal Crossing: New Horizons has surpassed 31 million sales as of December 31, less than 10 months after its release last March.
We’ve written a number of times about why Animal Crossing‘s chill, landscape-tending gameplay lends itself perfectly to our current stuck-inside-amid-a-pandemic moment. But these new sales numbers show just how much of a phenomenon the latest title has been in driving Nintendo’s recent success.
To show just how incredible it is for an Animal Crossing game to sell 31 million copies, we’ve gathered some relevant statistics to help put that massive number into context:
31.18 million: Sales for Animal Crossing: New Horizons through December 31, 2020
- 11.77 million: Number of those sales that came in the game’s first 12 days on the market in March 2020.
- 31.38 million: Lifetime sales for Pokemon Red/Green/Blue on the Game Boy.
- 30.8 million: Lifetime sales for New Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo DS.
- 35.12 million: Total combined sales for all previous Animal Crossing console games.
- Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival (Wii U, 2015): 490K
- Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer (3DS, 2015): 3.47M
- Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS, 2012): 12.82M
- Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii, 2008): 4.32M
- Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS, 2005): 11.75M
- Animal Crossing (GameCube, 2001): 2.27M
Vs. Nintendo hardware share
39%: Animal Crossing: New Horizons sales as a percentage of total Nintendo Switch sales (31.18M / 79.87M)
- 16.9%: Animal Crossing: New Leaf sales as a percentage of total Nintendo 3DS sales (12.82M / 75.94M)
- 10.4%: Animal Crossing sales as a percentage of total GameCube sales (2.27M / 21.74M)
- 7.6%: Animal Crossing: Wild World sales as a percentage of total Nintendo DS sales (11.75M / 154.02M)
- 4.3%: Animal Crossing: City Folk sales as a percentage of total Wii sales (4.32M / 101.63M)
- 3.6%: Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival sales as a percentage of total Wii U sales (0.49M / 13.56M)
Vs. other Nintendo best-sellers
39%: Animal Crossing: New Horizons sales as a percentage of total Nintendo Switch sales (31.18M / 79.87M)
- 41.8%: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sales as a percentage of total Switch sales (33.41M / 79.87M)
- 39.7%: Super Smash Bros. for Wii U sales as a percentage of total Wii U sales (5.38M / 13.56M)
- 36.7%: Mario Kart Wii sales as a percentage of total Wii sales (37.48M / 101.63M)
- 34.1%: Super Smash Bros. Melee sales as a percentage of total GameCube sales. (7.41M / 21.74M)
- 29.9%: Mario Kart 64 sales as a percentage of total N64 sales. (9.87M / 32.93M)
- 29.1%: Super Mario Bros. 3 sales as a percentage of total NES sales (18M / 61.91M)
- 24.9%: Mario Kart 7 sales as a percentage of total Nintendo 3DS sales (18.92M / 75.94M)
- 21.5%: Super Mario All-Stars sales as a percentage of total SNES sales. (10.55M / 49.1M)
- 19.9%: New Super Mario Bros. sales as a percentage of total Nintendo DS sales (30.8M / 154.02M)
Vs. quick-selling first-year video games
31.18 million: Sales for Animal Crossing: New Horizons in about 9.5 months (approx. 3.28M / month)
- 34 million: Sales of Grand Theft Auto V in ~8.5 months (approx. 4M / month)
- 30 million: Projected first-year sales of Cyberpunk 2077, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg (projected 2.5M / month).
- 20 million: Sales for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in ~7 months (approx. 2.85M / month).
- 15.4 million Sales for Mario Kart Wii in ~12 months (approx. 1.28M / month)
In action, New Horizons looks and feels quite familiar. Water some plants.
Catch some fish.
NintendoCapture insects (albeit, handsomely rendered ones).
NintendoCollect insects, fossils, and fish, then donate them to a loquacious owl.
NintendoIn a series tradition, you’re greeted with a brief set of announcements at the start of every day. (If you boot the game multiple times in a single day or evening, you only see this announcement stuff once every 24 hours of play.)
NintendoDecorate the… outdoors? OK, that’s new. Yes, you’re now judged (and rewarded) for how much you decorate the exterior portions of your town.
NintendoOne new outdoor decoration element, fencing, is encouraged for the sake of a higher review score—though I have yet to find doors to attach to these fences, which means I have to build them with awkward openings.
NintendoAnother new element: Dodo Airlines. This works much like the previous games’ town gate, as it facilitates local and online modes.
NintendoBut it also lets players fly to randomly generated islands…
Nintendo…where they can acquire much-needed resources. In my tests, for example, I had to fly to a randomly generated island to get bamboo (which is crucial for many of the game’s crafting recipes).
NintendoOn another randomly generated island, I found a stranger wandering around, so I invited them to my town.
NintendoOne day, this dude showed up on my island and muttered a bunch of creepy stuff. What’s Harvey smoking, Nintendo?
NintendoTurns out he wants you to visit his special island…
Nintendo…which is designed to let players create photo dioramas. The catch is, you can only invite characters into your photo shoots if you own their Amiibo cards or toys.
NintendoYou can also use Amiibo toys and cards to invite new nonspecial characters to your island.
NintendoIt’s the only way to guarantee that certain favorite characters move into your town’s extra houses, as opposed to the game’s usual “wait for random animals to appear” system. As such, it’s a bit like “paid DLC,” and I’m not necessarily fond of how it favors people who buy Nintendo’s packs of blind-draw Amiibo cards.
NintendoBack to classic series tropes, like paying off home loans.
NintendoEvery time a new event or building opens, Tom Nook invites you to take part in a related ceremony.
NintendoThese celebrations are, unsurprisingly, adorable.
Nintendo
Listing image by Nintendo