Posted in: Animal Crossing, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Games, Nintendo, Video Games | Tagged: Animal Crossing, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, New Horizons, nintendo
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Has Surpassed Lifetime Sales Figures
To say that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a success is an understatement, especially when you consider the latest figures. The game already had a lot of things going for it. The fact it was the first new full game in the franchise in eight years, the fact it was on a relatively new console that's also portable and most people enjoy, the fact it was released in the Spring when a lot of AAA titles aren't being released in droves and the only thing it really had to compete with was DOOM Eternal. All of these things helped it out on paper. But no one could have predicted the impact COVID-19 would have on society in the idea that people are stuck at home in self-quarantine looking for something to occupy their time. With the game's release so spot on to the crisis that there are conspiracy theories out there claiming Japan helped create it to drive up sales. All of this has lead to a pretty stunning financial report.
During a Q&A session after a Nintendo Financial Results conference call with Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa, it was commented that the game had exceeded lifetime sales predictions, making it one of the most successful titles on the Switch to date. Here's a quick translation from Nintendo Life.
"The initial sales of Animal Crossing: New Horizons have greatly exceeded our expectations. We were targeting the current sales numbers for the game's lifetime considering fans have been waiting such a long time for this game, but it all happened at a much faster rate than we anticipated."
That's a nice faster to put in the cap, especially for fans of the franchise. Now we'll see if the game manages to break any internal and lifetime records as it continues to sell in the middle of the pandemic.