So...why do random villagers move in sometimes?

[LuchaSloth]

I recently had Ozzie move away, and I was planning on going island hopping as soon as he was gone. I woke up the day he left, and, in Isabelle's intro she just says "We have a new villager moving in today"...long story short, I randomly got Twiggy. Luckily, I can tolerate Twiggy. Not a favorite of mine...but, at least she's not D or F tier. Just kind of generic. Still, she's fine. But...yeah...I kinda wanted to find Kabuki this time. Why did the game just randomly move her in without me speaking to her at a campsite or a friend's town, or anything? How often does that happen? Do you have to go island hopping when the villager is in boxes? I thought you had to wait for them to actually be gone.

 

[Nunnafinga]

As far as I can tell,the game will move in a random villager once you have less than ten villagers.In New Leaf,the game waited until you had less than nine villagers before moving a random one in.Plus,there's always the dreaded villagers from the void that will crash your town.I'm not 100% sure on how often this will happen but in my experience,if you don't move somebody in yourself the game will do it for you and sometimes you don't even get a chance to go villager hunting or adopt someone from another town,as in your case.

 

[Livia]

You should have 1 day after a villager moves out to find a villager on nook miles islands before the game moves someone in. Did you time travel at all after Ozzie was in boxes?

 

[meggiewes]

Because random move-ins have always been a feature of Animal Crossing. Finding villagers on island tours and amiibo cards are relatively new.

You should always have a free day in between a move out and a move in so you have time to island hop if you want to.

 

[Khaelis]

Random move-ins have always been a thing, however New Horizons does try to give you at least a one day 'buffer' to give you a chance to find a villager on your own accord. However, if you visit people online that buffer is pretty much nonexistent since you'll pick up a voided villager.

 

[LuchaSloth]

That's what I'm saying tho. I don't time travel. Not a single time...and I thought I still had that one day to go and search. But...as far as I can tell, I just...didn't. He was in boxes. Then the next day, Twiggy was there. Now I'm second-guessing whether I skipped playing that day for some reason...but, that doesn't seem likely at all. I play every day, religiously...and I knew that I wanted to go island hopping to replace Ozzie. I was looking forward to it. Like...I'm having an "alien abduction moment" here. If I somehow missed that day, then I just lost a day in real time, which I can't account for. Lol.

 

[visibleghost]

there's like one day where you don't get a move in, then the game gives you one. it can be from someone's void too, even if you haven't played with the person while you had an open spot.

in my opinion one day is way too little time, i'd prefer a few days or a week so i could find a villager i want by trading or going island hopping without having to stress or time travel to stay on the same day.

in new leaf it worked differently and i thought it would work similarly in new horizons so in the beginning i left an open spot for a few days thinking i would get around to filling it soon. to my dismay, i get a move in the next day! it was colton, who i actually kind of liked having, but i wanted someone else and he was not on my wish list of villagers..

 

[Livia]

That's what I'm saying tho. I don't time travel. Not a single time...and I thought I still had that one day to go and search. But...as far as I can tell, I just...didn't. He was in boxes. Then the next day, Twiggy was there. Now I'm second-guessing whether I skipped playing that day for some reason...but, that doesn't seem likely at all. I play every day, religiously...and I knew that I wanted to go island hopping to replace Ozzie. I was looking forward to it. Like...I'm having an "alien abduction moment" here. If I somehow missed that day, then I just lost a day in real time, which I can't account for. Lol.

It sounds like your game had a glitch then. I found another person who says this happened. there's no solution, but hopefully it won't happen again to you.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AnimalCrossing/comments/j9ojoh

 

[eseamir]

I've only just started recently so I'm letting whoever shows up at my campsite move in, I thought you had to invite people to come live at your island tho? I just recently had Tiffany move in randomly because there was an empty lot and I have no idea where she came from

 

[DarkSlayer1331]

This has happened to me once before. And I know for a fact that I didn't skip a day. The only thing I could figure was that it was a villager from a person's void whose island I had visited. Luckily it only happened the one time, so I just chalk it up to a bit of bad luck. Then another time I was letting the game give me a random one, and it took four days for it to sell the plot off to someone. That one was really weird to me, because I assumed that if you didn't find a villager on day one after a move out, it would give you a random one on day two. It was nice to see that it'll be random on the number of days sometimes, kind of like New Leaf. You didn't know if it would be two days, or up to five days!

 

[DisneyGirl]

This happened to me too! While I went island hopping and found my other villagers, the other day after placing a plot down, it was automatically sold to Judy. Idk where she came from but she is adorable though.