Animal Crossing: Nintendo Executive Reflects on New Horizons Performing Beyond Expectations

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is performing above expectations and the company is thrilled about it. Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser sat down with Polygon to speak about how the game is going so far. It is no secret that Animal Crossing dominated the early stretches of this year. During that first period of quarantine, it was nearly impossible to get a Switch, and for those with a console, the series was a must-buy. The numbers back these kinds of stories up with the latest Animal Crossing title breaking records in both Japan and America. It's December and Nintendo is probably going to be raking in even more purchases from players that want to get in on the fun for the holidays. Check out what Bowser had to say in the interview down below.

"'Well beyond expectations' is, I think, the simplest way to put it in. I don't know that we expected it to be truly the cultural touchpoint that it became across the globe. And what we were pleased to see is how it redefined how people thought about video games and how they incorporated it in their lives," Bowser explained. "We saw people celebrating graduations; having birthday parties; weddings, even – virtually, through the game itself."

"And we were pleased to see that we were able to provide a bit of a respite in what was pretty chaotic times and challenging times for folks. So it's a result of many things. First of all: Developers did a wonderful job of creating a great universe, a great environment, great characters, and so that was very much engaging," he added. "But then, of course, the time of its release allowed a number of people who hadn't even played video games to come in and enjoy and understand not only video games, but understand Animal Crossing much further."

Comicbook.com actually talked to Amanda Brennan from the Tumblr Meme Library. She's a trends expert who broke down how Animal Crossing took over the Internet.

"Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out at the perfect time, first of all," Brennan observed. "I see there's a lot of completion. People who are sharing [fish and bug checklists]. So the last couple of days of March, everyone was really searching for the "stringfish" and making lots of posts about that. There's also, of course, tons of fan art. Both anthropomorphization, when they draw the characters as people, and I've seen a lot of Raymond. I've also seen a lot of people drawing other things as Animal Crossing characters."

She continued, "There was an incredible piece of fan art of My chemical Romance if they were in Animal Crossing. There's tons, tons of really varied pieces of content, and I feel like Animal Crossing is one of these things that is touching a lot of different communities and a lot of people that really didn't know that they needed it. I've seen a lot of people just be like, "well, everyone is playing it, so I guess I'm going to play it too, because I've got nothing to do right now." A lot of people really loving the game, really exploring the world."

Are you still keeping up with Animal Crossing? Let us know down in the comments!