Animal Crossing: New Horizons Earns Impressive Sales in Japan

This past year has led to some pretty impressive milestones with regards to gaming, and Animal [...]

This past year has led to some pretty impressive milestones with regards to gaming, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons is no exception. The latest title in the Animal Crossing franchise became a worldwide phenomenon when it debuted in March of this year, in part thanks to the communal aspect of it amid the social distancing and stay-at-home orders of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The game is continuing to break records left and right, and it sounds like that's especially the case for its sales in Japan. According to a new report from the Game Data Library, New Horizons has passed 6 million total sales in retail in Japan, becoming one of only five games to do so. The game has also been the fastest title in Japanese history to reach that milestone, with other entries, including Super Mario Bros. and Pokemon Gold and Silver, taking over a year to hit that landmark.

While this detail is somewhat unsurprising considering the overwhelming popularity of New Horizons, it still is fascinating to know how quickly the game has become such a prominent hit in Japan. With the game continuing to grow and evolve with the coming seasons and other prominent events, it's safe to say that the hype for New Horizons is sure to continue.

"Animal Crossing: New Horizons came out at the perfect time, first of all," Amanda Brennan, Tumblr's Meme Librarian and Trends Expert, told ComicBook.com earlier this year. "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. 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."

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available exclusively on Nintendo Switch. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the game right here.

0comments