Animal Crossing: New Horizons smashes sales records

Nintendo must have used the duplication glitch

We all knew the launch of Animal Crossing: New Horizons was going to be big. It’s a popular franchise coming for the first time to the hottest system on the market. Add in everyone who knows better staying indoors to keep healthy, and you have a perfect storm of sales potential. So we knew it was going to be big, but bigger than Smash Bros. or Pokémon?

Apparently so, at least in Japan, where Famitsu is reporting that New Horizons has sold 1.88 million copies over its first three days. And to clarify, this only covers physical copies of the game. To put that into perspective, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sold 1.23 million copies in its first three days on the market and Pokémon Sword & Shield managed 1.36 million in their first three days on store shelves. Those games went on to become monster successes, selling 17.68 million copies and 16.06 million copies respectively as of December 31, 2019.

Not only did New Horizons break big in its opening, but it also pushed Switch hardware to new highs with the Switch Lite selling 263,103 units last week and the original Switch SKU moving 129,947 units. When combined, the lifetime total for the Switch family of consoles surpasses the lifetime sales of the Nintendo Wii in the country.

Coupled with its seismic debut in the UK, it’s clear New Horizons is yet another blockbuster for the company. Hopefully, it’ll be enough to tide over Switch owners as we tremble in anticipation for Nintendo’s next big announcement.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Sells 1.88M (Famitsu via Japanese Nintendo)