Nintendo's latest earnings report contained plenty of good news for the company, including the revelation that the Nintendo Switch has now sold nearly 80 million units worldwide. Even more eye-popping, though, is the news that Animal Crossing: New Horizons has surpassed 31 million sales as of December 31, less than 10 months after its release last March.
We've written a number of times about why Animal Crossing's chill, landscape-tending gameplay lends itself perfectly to our current stuck-inside-amid-a-pandemic moment. But these new sales numbers show just how much of a phenomenon the latest title has been in driving Nintendo's recent success.
To show just how incredible it is for an Animal Crossing game to sell 31 million copies, we've gathered some relevant statistics to help put that massive number into context:
31.18 million: Sales for Animal Crossing: New Horizons through December 31, 2020
11.77 million: Number of those sales that came in the game's first 12 days on the market in March 2020.
31.38 million: Lifetime sales for Pokemon Red/Green/Blue on the Game Boy.
30.8 million: Lifetime sales for New Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo DS.
35.12 million: Total combined sales for all previous Animal Crossing console games.
Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival (Wii U, 2015): 490K
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer (3DS, 2015): 3.47M
Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS, 2012): 12.82M
Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii, 2008): 4.32M
Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS, 2005): 11.75M
Animal Crossing (GameCube, 2001): 2.27M
Vs. Nintendo hardware share
39%:Animal Crossing: New Horizons sales as a percentage of total Nintendo Switch sales (31.18M / 79.87M)
16.9%:Animal Crossing: New Leaf sales as a percentage of total Nintendo 3DS sales (12.82M / 75.94M)
10.4%:Animal Crossing sales as a percentage of total GameCube sales (2.27M / 21.74M)
7.6%:Animal Crossing: Wild World sales as a percentage of total Nintendo DS sales (11.75M / 154.02M)
4.3%:Animal Crossing: City Folk sales as a percentage of total Wii sales (4.32M / 101.63M)
3.6%:Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival sales as a percentage of total Wii U sales (0.49M / 13.56M)
Vs. other Nintendo best-sellers
39%:Animal Crossing: New Horizons sales as a percentage of total Nintendo Switch sales (31.18M / 79.87M)
41.8%:Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sales as a percentage of total Switch sales (33.41M / 79.87M)
With the rumors of a "Super" Switch, which would be in line of the New 3DS and DSi release timeline (~4 years from original hardware).
13.53m Switch Lite sold (out of 79.87m Switch), matching the total Wii U sold (13.56m).
Super Mario 3D World port and the Pokemon Snap the Wii U never got, there are few Nintendo games left on the Wii U exclusively. Here are the ones that come to mind:
Xenoblade Chronicles X Windwaker HD Skyward Sword HD Star Fox Zero Pushmo World Fatal Frame Yoshi (got a sequel) Splatoon (got a sequel) Kirby and the Rainbow Curse
Mario Party Switch showed off some neat, but limited, dual Switch features. Maybe they can bring more of that to other games, including Wii U GamePad needed ports like Nintendo Land , Affordable Space Adventures and Star Fox Guard.
It would also highlight their want to get 2+ Switch units in each household with the Switch Lite.
With the rumors of a "Super" Switch, which would be in line of the New 3DS and DSi release timeline (~4 years from original hardware).
13.53m Switch Lite sold (out of 79.87m Switch), matching the total Wii U sold (13.56m).
Super Mario 3D World port and the Pokemon Snap the Wii U never got, there are few Nintendo games left on the Wii U exclusively. Here are the ones that come to mind:
Xenoblade Chronicles X Windwaker HD Skyward Sword HD Star Fox Zero Pushmo World Fatal Frame Yoshi (got a sequel) Splatoon (got a sequel) Kirby and the Rainbow Curse
Mario Party Switch showed off some neat, but limited, dual Switch features. Maybe they can bring more of that to other games, including Wii U GamePad needed ports like Nintendo Land , Affordable Space Adventures and Star Fox Guard.
It would also highlight their want to get 2+ Switch units in each household with the Switch Lite.
Kyle Orland
Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012, writing primarily about the business, tech, and culture behind video games. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He once wrote a whole book about Minesweeper.
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