Is ACNH dying?

[King koopa]

I feel like the hype was dead in autumn, there are definitely more regular players now but overall I'd say we reached a constant where only the most dedicated players still play. The first year has been somewhat underwhelming in the end, with New Leaf you had like 30 days between buildings and upgrades and I don't feel like I got bored that easily. In New Horizons you're like done with buildings before autumn and right now the future doesn't seem that exciting.

Yeah I agree with this. I remember in April almost all my friends were playing new horizons and i saw a bunch of dreamie hunting on YouTube. But in the fall, most of my friends started getting bored of the game and I saw less dreamie hunting videos. Now, the hype is dead, but people still play, so I bet all Nintendo basically has to do is add something big, like max crafting, making landscaping better, adding online multiplayer, I can assure you the hype will be back. But it's Nintendo's choice, not mine.

 

[DragonLatios]

Yeah I agree with this. I remember in April almost all my friends were playing new horizons and i saw a bunch of dreamie hunting on YouTube. But in the fall, most of my friends started getting bored of the game and I saw less dreamie hunting videos. Now, the hype is dead, but people still play, so I bet all Nintendo basically has to do is add something big, like max crafting, making landscaping better, adding online multiplayer, I can assure you the hype will be back. But it's Nintendo's choice, not mine.

I Hope so as a Player Name Ruby was On this Form and on the game side before MIA as i use to send her Items from her wish list and she dose it in return. I Think at how i got a Lot of item by Swaping items for item we find on our day or week. I Hope She Reply to me so we can do this again. I not Sure she update her list in a while?

 

[-Lumi-]

I think the popularity and mainstream hype around Animal Crossing New Horizons is definitely settling down. When New Horizons was first released it was popularized so much that people who had never played an Animal Crossing game before decided to pick it up, just because. There was an influx of players that we didn't see with New Leaf, in my opinion. This lead to people who might not otherwise really enjoy the game picking it up just to play with friends, maybe make videos/streams of the game, or have other social media accounts dedicated to it and now that it's not as popular anymore they're setting it down because it doesn't get as many views or clicks.

I think even with genuine Animal Crossing fans though, New Horizons has been a pretty polarizing release. I don't think the games support/players will fully disappear until a new game is released but I can see it slowing down quicker than it did with New Leaf. I think this is a mix of it releasing during the start of the pandemic so a lot of people burned themselves out with the game and just in general New Horizons seems to pad itself out with false longevity. The decision to base so much of New Horizons content behind updates is really frustrating. We're missing NPCs, shops, and I'm not sure if it's still the case but last years holidays were blocked behind updates which was a major annoyance for folks who like to time travel.

Plus there's the issue of a lot of the content being hidden behind the need for an online membership and actually trading with people. That can negatively affect people who either can't or don't want to play online and I could see that contributing to people putting the game down quicker than they might've in the past. Especially if you go from having an online membership to no longer having one - that's a big difference in what you're able to do in the game. Trading DIYs, item variants, materials, adopting villagers (although this one is a little easier to deal with since we have mystery islands), visiting other peoples islands to shop from Leif or watch the stars/talk to Celeste, and then of course there's not having access to custom designs.

I think it was always natural for the popularity of New Horizons to settle down because of how insanely popular it was at the beginning but I do feel like some of the reason it's quieted down is because people are losing interest in it faster than they did with prior releases.

 

[Louise_]

I still play it not as much as when it first came out I still enjoy it

 

[Flicky]

I think it was always natural for the popularity of New Horizons to settle down because of how insanely popular it was at the beginning but I do feel like some of the reason it's quieted down is because people are losing interest in it faster than they did with prior releases.

This definitely feels accurate, at least from what I saw.

On another (unrelated to AC) forum I visit, we all used to play NL together. The topic for NL was huge, and it stayed that way for over six months before it started to go a little quiet.

When NH came out, I was already playing another island-building game, so I decided to wait until I was burned out from it before tackling NH. I watched the forum posts for NH, and it was... slow. The same members had NH (save for one or two that had since left, and been replaced with new members), but all I saw was a sea of complaints about missing features. After less than a month, the topic had died out. A handful of updates prompted a bump, then it went quiet again.

I've only been playing since Christmas, so I still have things to do. But I have noticed many others around me have left long ago, both returning players and new.

 

[-Lumi-]

This definitely feels accurate, at least from what I saw.

On another (unrelated to AC) forum I visit, we all used to play NL together. The topic for NL was huge, and it stayed that way for over six months before it started to go a little quiet.

When NH came out, I was already playing another island-building game, so I decided to wait until I was burned out from it before tackling NH. I watched the forum posts for NH, and it was... slow. The same members had NH (save for one or two that had since left, and been replaced with new members), but all I saw was a sea of complaints about missing features. After less than a month, the topic had died out. A handful of updates prompted a bump, then it went quiet again.

I've only been playing since Christmas, so I still have things to do. But I have noticed many others around me have left long ago, both returning players and new.

That's what I've found, too. I don't frequent a lot of other forums/sites but I am on a handful that have Animal Crossing discussions and the difference between how New Leaf was received vs New Horizons is telling. For New Leaf there were definitely complaints because it was far from a perfect game but those seemed to be few and far between and what I mainly saw were positive discussions or people playing the game together.

With New Horizons I saw a lot more discussions about missing features, problems with the game, or people defending the game and that cycle will repeat sometimes when new updates come out but for the most part the game isn't really mentioned anymore.

I think for a lot of players they either stopped early on or stopped once they played for a full in game year. Once they had experienced all the holidays/events they likely already had the museum finished too so they didn't personally see a lot of reason to go back. I feel like New Horizons not having mini games or anything really fun to do with friends online really hurt the longevity in that sense and just the base of the game doesn't give you a lot to work towards or look forward to. It's why I miss New Leaf so much - it felt like there was more progression in that game. Stores upgrading, NPCs moving in/opening up shop, receiving PWPs from villagers, earning the ability to customize our train station/town hall, seeing the town tree grow taller, filling out the museum etc. With New Horizons there's a lot less to work towards so it's easy for people to feel done with the game sooner.

 

[wolfie1]

During the first two or three months after launch, my TL on Twitter and other social media platforms was literally full of ACNH pictures or videos. After a year, they've all disappeared. Same thing on YouTube. Now does this mean the game is dying? I don't know, but it definitely means that the interest has drastically waned. I know a lot of people who have stopped playing, myself included.

 

[Fridaynightcatlady]

I guess it just depends.

Every game’s community, eventually, dims and the hype dies out. I’ve logged 500 hours so far but I’m playing sporadically. The new items will spark new ideas for my island and I like talking to my villagers from time to time.

If you ask me, the fact that the hype has deflated doesn’t affect me much, tbh. I know there’ll always be people playing if I need trading or visiting islands. Splatoon, Mario Kart, Smash communities are still strong, even years after release. AC community tends to be the same and NH is no exception.

I think there’s a big chunk of players who came in blind to the series and just loved the first experience of AC. I know friends who were newcomers and I kept telling them, “Animal Crossing is a game you can keep playing on for years”. But they don’t like “endless” games and I think a lot of newcomer players were like that. In fact, my friends haven’t returned to the game despite a lot of the updates and holidays, and I feel a big chunk of new players have done that, too, which makes me question just how much can appeal to new players.

 

[WaileaNoRei]

I guess it just depends.

Every game’s community, eventually, dims and the hype dies out. I’ve logged 500 hours so far but I’m playing sporadically. The new items will spark new ideas for my island and I like talking to my villagers from time to time.

If you ask me, the fact that the hype has deflated doesn’t affect me much, tbh. I know there’ll always be people playing if I need trading or visiting islands. Splatoon, Mario Kart, Smash communities are still strong, even years after release. AC community tends to be the same and NH is no exception.

I think there’s a big chunk of players who came in blind to the series and just loved the first experience of AC. I know friends who were newcomers and I kept telling them, “Animal Crossing is a game you can keep playing on for years”. But they don’t like “endless” games and I think a lot of newcomer players were like that. In fact, my friends haven’t returned to the game despite a lot of the updates and holidays, and I feel a big chunk of new players have done that, too, which makes me question just how much can appeal to new players.

while I know I definitely don’t speak for all new players, I am brand new to the animal crossing franchise! I had heard of the game, maybe before, but I had never played any of them ever. I started playing this game because my husband was bored during the pandemic/ parental leave and we bought some switches and he found a description of this game and I though it looked fun.

I got totally hooked and found in this game just exactly the gaming experience I (apparently) wanted. I have a good friend who is also not familiar with the series and we still often play together and constantly text about the game. Obviously i am only one person, but I swear there are more of us on the forum and out there in the wider community.

I agree with your overall comment, the hype may be dying down but that doesn’t effect those of us still excited about the game and involved in an active and engaged community like this one.

And I also understand wondering if all the hype resulted in any dedicated new fans too - or if it was just purely a passing fad. but in my experience at least it did, and I’m very happy to have found this game and community. And I don’t think I am the only one either, fwiw

 

[Arckaniel]

I don't think it's dying, yes it doesn't have as much players as it used to in the start but that's just every other game, but unlike some games, ACNH really lack updates that would make players want to stay/comeback so the game is just really slowing down day by day...

 

[Sarah3]

I wouldn't say dying but also won't deny the downturn. But that's expected and nothing wrong with that. Happens to every game ever. I still enjoy playing!

 

[Mezzanine]

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