New Animal Crossing Update Is Bad News for New Horizons Sequel

A new update from Nintendo tied to the Animal Crossing series is bad news for those who have been hoping to see a sequel to Animal Crossing: New Horizons come about any time soon. Since the launch of the Switch 2 earlier this year, many Nintendo fans have been wondering about when the next mainline Animal Crossing game might get announced. While there’s no guarantee that a new Animal Crossing title is in development, based on how well New Horizons sold, it’s all but guaranteed that a follow-up entry will come to Switch 2 eventually. Unfortunately, it now looks like this release may be further down the road than

As of today, Nintendo announced that it’s releasing a Switch 2 upgrade for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This update, which will go live in January 2026, will improve the visuals for New Horizons on Switch 2 while also bringing a slew of additional features like Game Chat support. The patch will also go live on original Switch platforms, which means that there will be plenty of reasons for lapsed fans to jump back into the game.

This Update Tells Us A Lot About Animal Crossing’s Future

So, how does this update relate to the sequel to New Horizons? Well, the implication is that Nintendo wouldn’t be releasing this Switch 2 upgrade for its most recent Animal Crossing game if a new installment was close to launching. This update’s main focus seems to be getting new life out of New Horizons as a way of bridging the gap to the next Animal Crossing game.

Read Next

The Worst Animal Crossing Game Still Deserves a Sequel

As such, 2026 being the year that a new Animal Crossing game hits Switch 2 can likely be comfortably ruled out. This puts 2027 as the absolute earliest that a new entry would then launch. While that might seem like an incredibly long stretch between games, it’s actually in line with what we’ve seen before. The last gap between mainline Animal Crossing games was eight years, as Animal Crossing: New Leaf arrived in 2012.

Even if a new Animal Crossing game isn’t bound until 2027 or beyond, there’s still hope that we could see it in the coming year. New Horizons was initially revealed in 2018 and had a launch window of 2019. This window eventually ended up slipping back to 2020, but it tells us that Nintendo is willing to show off its new AC games well over a year in advance. With this in mind, there’s hope to be had that we could see a teaser trailer for the next Animal Crossing game in 2026, even if it weren’t slated until 2027 or 2028.

Rest Assured, A New Animal Crossing Game Will Release

As mentioned, there’s almost no chance that the Switch 2 generation will come and go without a new Animal Crossing game coming about. Animal Crossing: New Horizons has sold a staggering 48 million copies since its launch in 2020, which makes it the second best-selling Switch game behind only Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. To further stress just how impressive this is, it means that New Horizons has beaten out the lifetime sales for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, and the combined sales of Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet.

Animal Crossing is surely one of the five biggest franchises that Nintendo now has, which is saying a lot given how many major properties it owns. Although it’s taking longer than millions of fans might like, the Animal Crossing series is by no means coming to an end with New Horizons. In fact, based on how well the last game did, there’s reason to believe that Animal Crossing could be bigger and better than ever with its next iteration on Switch 2.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!