Just this past month we reported that Animal Crossing: New Horizons broke some insane sales records in Japan as the game went onto become the fastest-selling Switch title in the region’s history, and has since become the best selling Switch title there as well. Well, get ready for some more number-crunching news as Nintendo has published their financial earnings report for the quarter and it reveals that Animal Crossing: New Horizons has reached a monstrous 13.41 million copies sold in terms of lifetime sales (physical and digital). Thanks to this, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is now the best-selling game in the entire franchise, a feat that was accomplished in just a little more than a month since it launched.
As you can see in the graph shown in the above tweet, the gap between the three titles is very apparent. The previous two entries that were the highest-selling games in the series, Animal Crossing: Wild World and the extremely popular Animal Crossing: New Leaf, accumulated their total lifetime sales at 11.75 million and 12.45 million units sold respectively. Keep in mind that these numbers were over the course of several years of being available long after they launched.
To the right of the chart sits Animal Crossing: New Horizons which completely destroyed those lifetime numbers in just the first six weeks of being available. In the financial report, Nintendo states that in the month of March alone, Animal Crossing: New Horizons sold approximately 11 million copies (physical and digital). Nintendo went onto say that this was “The best start ever for a Nintendo Switch title.”
Suffice to say, the popularity, cultural impact, and the anticipation of the game cannot be overstated. The franchise has long captured the hearts and minds of gamers around the world, and these numbers are extremely evident of that. While sales will inevitably slow down as time moves on, we wouldn’t be surprised if the total amount of units sold in its lifetime continues to grow throughout 2020 and beyond. We’ve said this before, and we’ll say it again, we’re not sure what the gaming landscape of 2020 will look like later this year, but right now Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the undisputed king.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now for the Nintendo Switch.