Animal Crossing New Horizons is Now the Second Best Selling Game on the Switch

[Holla]

Nintendo recently updated their sales figures. Which can be found here.

With this update Animal Crossing New Horizons has now outsold Smash Brothers Ultimate for the second best selling Switch game. Only game ahead of Animal Crossing now is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

As someone who’s been a fan of the series for 15+ years it’s amazing to see just how popular it’s become.

Also here's a breakdown of sales of each of the games in the series for comparison:

Original: 2.32 million
Wild World: 11.75 million (9th best selling DS game)
City Folk: 3.38 million
New Leaf: 12.82 million (6th best selling 3DS game)
New Horizons: 26.04 million (2nd best selling Switch game)

Sales figures are as of September 30th 2020

 

[Radio]

I'm really glad more people are getting into it! I remember when I was trying to explain the concept to my friends back when it was just out on the GameCube and everyone gave me really funny looks. Means I have more people to talk about it to and play with now.

 

[ekcomyth]

i love mario kart 8 and i know a lot of people play it but i did not expect it to be the first best-selling game for the console. even ahead than smash bros :O has it always been this popular? also for animal crossing its really no surprise. This game has definitely helped people through turbulent times and it deserve the spot. Hope this propels the devs to put in more events!

 

[niko@kamogawa]

It's one of the games that made me happy as a Nintendo Switch owner.

I am glad that it's seeing success. It certainly got a huge boost in sales because of the ongoing pandemic as well.

 

[tajikey]

And here I thought the game didn't have enough new - or old - content.

It's one of my favorite games ever, and the only game I've ever played 231 days in a row.

 

[Holla]

i love mario kart 8 and i know a lot of people play it but i did not expect it to be the first best-selling game for the console. even ahead than smash bros :O has it always been this popular? also for animal crossing its really no surprise. This game has definitely helped people through turbulent times and it deserve the spot. Hope this propels the devs to put in more events!

If you look at the categories for the other consoles on the page I linked in the first post you'll notice that Mario Kart is usually the best selling game for most consoles. If it isn't the best it's still usually within the top 3ish.

Also while it’s no surprise that AC:NH is as popular as it is it’s neat to compare it’s sales to the older games. You can tell that the series has gotten much more popular thanks to NH.

 

[eggie_]

mario kart 8 might be bc of inflated sales numbers? they sell a copy of mario kart 8 with some switches do they not? and they also sold a mario kart 8 game with the 3ds (or at least one came installed on my 3ds xl when i bought it new), and although thats not the switch, someone just mentioned how mario kart always has high sales lol i wonder how many times theyve bundled it and if it has to do with anything. but anyways if you take away the sales numbers for mario kart8 that were from bundles, i bet animal crossing is in the lead. or thats what i want to believe at least haha

 

[ekcomyth]

If you look at the categories for the other consoles on the page I linked in the first post you'll notice that Mario Kart is usually the best selling game for most consoles. If it isn't the best it's still usually within the top 3ish.

ya but the fact that its the first best-selling game is pretty astonishing.

 

[Sheep Villager]

I gotta say I didn't ever expect an Animal Crossing game to shoot past Smash Bros in sales. Very happy for the franchise though.

I do wonder how much the quarantine has boosted the sales.
Would also be interesting to see how many active players there are now vs. on launch.​

 

[Holla]

mario kart 8 might be bc of inflated sales numbers? they sell a copy of mario kart 8 with some switches do they not? and they also sold a mario kart 8 game with the 3ds (or at least one came installed on my 3ds xl when i bought it new), and although thats not the switch, someone just mentioned how mario kart always has high sales lol i wonder how many times theyve bundled it and if it has to do with anything. but anyways if you take away the sales numbers for mario kart8 that were from bundles, i bet animal crossing is in the lead. or thats what i want to believe at least haha

I actually haven’t seen any Switch bundles with Mario Kart at least in my area. The majority of switches here are sold without any games. It could be different in other countries though I suppose.

 

[Sara?]

I hope this will translate into more updates and longer support in the games life spam, , lets hope this increase sales and users will be translated into many new cool things coming up to our islands

Post automatically merged: Nov 5, 2020

I gotta say I didn't ever expect an Animal Crossing game to shoot past Smash Bros in sales. Very happy for the franchise though.

I do wonder how much the quarantine has boosted the sales.
Would also be interesting to see how many active players there are now vs. on launch.​

I also have the suspicion that COVID has probably affected sales in a positive way. To be honest I really just hope this will translate into more complex and detailed updates for all its users and maybe since they probably have surpassed their target sales maybe they could possibly think about supporting the game more years than initially thought. Lets hope we get some juice out of their sales too

 

[Jinglefruit]

mario kart 8 might be bc of inflated sales numbers? they sell a copy of mario kart 8 with some switches do they not? and they also sold a mario kart 8 game with the 3ds (or at least one came installed on my 3ds xl when i bought it new), and although thats not the switch, someone just mentioned how mario kart always has high sales lol i wonder how many times theyve bundled it and if it has to do with anything. but anyways if you take away the sales numbers for mario kart8 that were from bundles, i bet animal crossing is in the lead. or thats what i want to believe at least haha

Animal Crossing also came as a bundle remember. Also I'd think if people are buying the MK8 bundle, it's because they would have bought Mario Kart anyway. I'd say Covid inflated AC sales much more than bundles inflated MK sales.

 

[Romaki]

I'm more surprised about Zelda not being in the Top 3. But I'm glad the game is successful.

 

[Eureka]

I'm very glad it's doing so well! I know quite a few people who aren't really gamers but got into ACNH and are now completely addicted to it, my mother happens to be one I do think the lockdowns from Covid turned a lot of people to the game when they would normally pass it up. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

 

[Viewing]

Animal Crossing also came as a bundle remember. Also I'd think if people are buying the MK8 bundle, it's because they would have bought Mario Kart anyway. I'd say Covid inflated AC sales much more than bundles inflated MK sales.

That, and AC:NH was getting coverage everywhere from people who were already fans of the series.

 

[Nefarious]

I'm happy for the series and how far it has come. From niche on the gamecube to mainstream on the switch. Just hope the success doesn't go to their head negatively like how others series ended up.

 

[returnofsaturn]

I'm so glad about how far it's reached.

 

[JellyBeans]

I'm so glad to see it doing so well and becoming so popular! I think quarantine definitely helped with the sales of it - it's such a relaxing game and it's what we all needed at the moment lol

 

[Dunquixote]

I have mixed feelings. I am happy about the success since I love the game and series so much. But some of their decisions like waiting to fix issues right before the amiibo cards are released instead of fixing it right away, bothers me very much. I can’t turn a blind eye from that. I still am a concerned about the lack of furniture at the half a year since its release mark. I know that I should move on from that and I’d like to to; it is difficult because I have OCD and no that is not an excuse. I don’t choose to be anxious or unhappy; it just happens. I like companies that don’t openly show they are trying to milk their customers of every penny. I like companies that acknowledge their mistakes right away, communicates with fans and fix them early before the problem is exploited.I cannot respect companies that knows about something that wasn’t intended to work a certain way in the game, but they let it sit there and let people exploit it until they see when they can make an extra profit from taking it away.

I also am bothered by the sellers on Amazon hiking the price from $59.99 to $79.99 (this was in May). i found one for regular price but the case was in Italian; everything else is in the right language though. I don’t think this had anything to do with them, but still bothers me to see the price skyrocketing because of the pandemic

Post automatically merged: Nov 5, 2020

sorry if i offended anyone. not feeling real good today and am a bit crabby.

 

[Viewing]

I have mixed feelings. I am happy about the success since I love the game and series so much. But some of their decisions like waiting to fix issues right before the amiibo cards are released instead of fixing it right away, bothers me very much. I can’t turn a blind eye from that. I still am a concerned about the lack of furniture at the half a year since its release mark. I know that I should move on from that and I’d like to to; it is difficult because I have OCD and no that is not an excuse. I don’t choose to be anxious or unhappy; it just happens. I like companies that don’t openly show they are trying to milk their customers of every penny. I like companies that acknowledge their mistakes right away, communicates with fans and fix them early before the problem is exploited.I cannot respect companies that knows about something that wasn’t intended to work a certain way in the game, but they let it sit there and let people exploit it until they see when they can make an extra profit from taking it away.

I also am bothered by the sellers on Amazon hiking the price from $59.99 to $79.99 (this was in May). i found one for regular price but the case was in Italian; everything else is in the right language though. I don’t think this had anything to do with them, but still bothers me to see the price skyrocketing because of the pandemic

Post automatically merged: Nov 5, 2020

sorry if i offended anyone. not feeling real good today and am a bit crabby.

Absolutely nothing wrong with this, my man. You have some legitimate concerns, and I'm sure a lot of the long time players have issues with at least one of these. Communication is always my #1, and it's a shame that a lot of companies don't take that approach anymore.

As far as the prices during the start of the pandemic, there's not a whole lot you can do. I recall a lot of that being from 3rd party sellers trying to make a quick buck, which is annoying (look how messed up the switch prices are/were). I believe that if it was official stores selling it, Nintendo could put a stop to it, but I'm not 100% on that.