Famitsu, through its usual physical sales estimates, reported today that Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Switch sold more than 1.88 million as of March 23.
Animal Crossing on Switch released worldwide on March 20, this means it sold 1.88 million physical copies in Japan in only three days. Moreover, Famitsu reported that still according to its estimates, Animal Crossing had the best first-week sales ever for a Switch game in Japan. It's doing better than Zelda BOTW, Splatoon 2, Mario Odyssey, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Pokemon... Any record holder so far.
On the week of Animal Crossing's release, sales for Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite consoles have greatly increased in Japan. The sales went from less than 100,000 units a week to 392,576 units the week of Animal Crossing.
The game is doing great in other parts of the world as well. Animal Crossing players worldwide are also sharing custom art and costumes for villagers. Yoko Taro fans ended up recreating NieR Automata's 9S and 2D as well. Not only weebs are having fun with all this. The Last of Us 2's Ellie was recreated in-game too.
Personally speaking, I've never been into Animal Crossing, but this is definitely great news. It also shows how many are coping with all the stuff going down in the world right now with a nice and cozy videogame.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the latest game in the Animal Crossing / Doubutsu no Mori series. The very first game released on Nintendo 64 exclusively in Japan on April 14, 2001. Animal Crossing later became popular worldwide with its Gamecube iteration. It released in December 2001 in Japan, September 2002 in USA, October 2003 in Australia and September 2004 in Europe.
If you've already grabbed Animal Crossing Switch, be sure to check out our guide on how to import art.