Anyone who has paid attention to the gaming scene over the last couple of years knows that Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been a huge hit. However, it's just achieved a massive milestone, surpassing every other game released thus far.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons likely would have performed well regardless, as many people owned a Nintendo Switch at release, and many players are long-standing fans of the series as a whole. However, due to the game landing in the very early stages of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the game served as an outlet for people cooped up at home, and started destroying sale records as a result.
Now, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has blasted through one of the most impressive sales records possible to become the best-selling game of all time in Japan. New Horizons has now cleared 10 million copies sold solely in Japan, pushing it past the previous record holder of Super Mario Bros., which has moved 6.81 million units over the course of its lifetime. An impressive feat, to be sure, especially since the next-highest seller was the original trio of Pokemon games.
Overall, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has moved over 37 million units worldwide, putting it just behind Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as the overall best-selling Switch game. The Nintendo Switch was already considered a success prior to the pandemic arriving, though some might not have imagined Nintendo's future being this bright while the company was still struggling with the Wii U's sales performance.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons provides players with plenty to keep them busy, and the recent release of Happy Home Paradise DLC has likely increased the number of sales overall. While the restrictions revolving around the COVID-19 pandemic have been reduced, chances are a lot of players are still seeing their island getaway as a comforting place to return to during stressful moments of this unprecedented time.
Now that the Nintendo Switch has entered its mid-life, it remains to be seen what the future of the developer and its consoles will be. Chances are the next Nintendo console will see new iteration of Animal Crossing on it, but that's likely still many years out. At the moment, the team behind Animal Crossing: New Horizons is working on the development of Splatoon 3, which is still slated to release sometime in 2022. While it's certainly a more active and competitive game than Animal Crossing: New Horizons, its colorful and cheerful aesthetic may see it topple some sale records of its own.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now for Nintendo Switch.
Source: NintendoLife