Yep, on 20th March 2020, Nintendo finally unleashed the latest entry in the Animal Crossing series on the world. The series had, historically, put up pretty decent sales numbers — both New Leaf and Wild World are in the top 10 best-selling titles for the 3DS and DS respectively — but New Horizons eclipsed all of that.
A game about going outside and meeting your friends would have had a cute little hook at any time, but released at the start of a pesky little curio called a global pandemic, the interest jumped to another level. In its first six weeks, New Horizons had outsold every other entry in the series, and it has since gone on to shift a whopping 47.77 million copies — beaten only by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in the list of Switch best-sellers.
You don't need us to remind you just how wild the world went (heh) for New Horizons at launch, but let's recap some of the craziest moments:
Just about every famous face you can think of got involved in the island adventure, including (and we're not joking here) Brie Larson, Elijah Wood, Stephen Fry and Sting. Heck, the Biden presidential campaign even opened an island of its own in 2020! What timeline were we living in??
Players around the world instantly put our humble design efforts to shame with recreations of global landmarks and every video game you can think of, from Stardew Valley to Resident Evil. And this popularity spun out into brand collaborations, with New Horizons popping up with Sanrio, Puma, Uniqlo and about a billion others.
Oh, and if you still need convincing of just how tight a grip the NH gang had us all in, Nintendo started releasing health messages via its characters — remember when Isabelle reminded us to stay hydrated during a heatwave? We do.
You might assume that such a big footprint would result in years of post-launch support, right? Hah. Good one. After some short-lived seasonal updates and the Happy Home Paradise DLC, Nintendo's been pretty silent on the whole affair. Sure, we've had plenty of LEGO sets, merch and a handful of special edition Switch designs, but new game content? No way.
Maybe it's all being saved for whatever the next entry brings. 40+ million sales don't go unnoticed and while it has been a while since most of us at Nintendo Life Towers have revisited our islands for a bit of much-needed weeding, we'd be very surprised if Switch 2 doesn't capitalise on the fame before long.
If, like us, it's been a while since you last visited New Horizons, perhaps today is the perfect time for it. Shake those bedheads into shape, crush those cockroaches and set about emptying a letterbox full of rotting cakes from Mum; we've got a birthday to celebrate.
