Nintendo’s latest quarterly financial results have been released, and they’ve revealed a number of interesting new details about Nintendo Switch and its software. The system has become one of the greatest selling of all-time, and that’s led to strong numbers for first-party games, including Animal Crossing: New Horizons. In the report, Nintendo referred to the game as “such a large driver of the overall Nintendo Switch business” in 2020. Last year, the game continued to find great success, surpassing 10 million copies sold in Japan overall. Interestingly enough, that breaks a long-standing record set by Super Mario Bros. on NES, making New Horizons the country’s single best-selling video game ever!
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“Incidentally, total sell-through for Animal Crossing: New Horizons has exceeded 10 million units in Japan alone, far surpassing the record 6.81 million units of 1985’s Super Mario Bros., and it is the single best-selling video game ever in Japan.”
Worldwide, Animal Crossing: New Horizons sits at 37.62 million copies sold, making it the second best-selling game on Switch, after Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The game’s success has been incredible to see, and it shows just how far the series has come in just the last few years. For the sake of comparison, 2012’s Animal Crossing: New Leaf on Nintendo 3DS sold just under 13 million copies, as of September 2021. Prior to New Horizons, New Leaf was the best-selling Animal Crossing game. Clearly the franchise’s popularity has grown quite a bit over the last few years!
While Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been a massive success for Nintendo, the future of the series remains in question. Undoubtedly, a sequel will arrive at some point, but New Horizons received its final major update last year, alongside the release of the game’s DLC. For now, fans will just have to keep busy with that!
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now, exclusively on Nintendo Switch. Readers can check out all of our previous coverage of the game right here.
How do you feel about Animal Crossing: New Horizons? Are you surprised the game beat Mario’s record? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!
