As part of its financial results today, Nintendo revealed that Animal Crossing: New Horizons sold over 13.41 million copies in its first six weeks.
New Horizons debuted for Switch on March 20. By March 31 — the date that Nintendo’s latest earnings period ended on — it sold over 11.77 million copies. As you can see, it has been a massive hit, already passing the lifetime 12.55 million copies sold for its predecessor, Animal Crossing: New Leaf for the Nintendo 3DS.
It is already the Switch’s No. 6 best-selling game (if you combine sales for Pokémon Sword and Shield). Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sits at the top with a massive 24.77 million copies sold.
The Animal Crossing series has been growing in popularity in recent years, and New Horizons became something of a shared cultural moment when it came out during the current pandemic. It offers players a way to escape social distancing and build up their own virtual community.
Animal Crossing debuted in 2001 in Japan for Nintendo 64. The U.S. first saw the series with the release of the GameCube version in 2002.