Animal Crossing: New Horizons continues to be a dominating force within the video game world through both its roaring financial success and passionate online community. Recently it came to light that Animal Crossing: New Horizons has sold over 22 million copies just months after launch. While that is an undeniably staggering number, it turns out that the game holds a new special honor.
Following Nintendo's financial report which saw big returns, news has come out that a significant portion of those 22 million buys are from Japanese gamers. Specifically, Japan accounts for nearly a third of New Horizons' total sales which in turn has made it one of the best selling games ever in the country.
With over 7.5 million sales, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is now the second highest selling game in the history of the Japanese market. The data came from Twitter user Game Data Library which originally noted New Horizons as the third highest selling game closely behind Pokemon Gold and Silver. In a follow-up tweet, Game Data Library clarified that the original data table only accounted for sales up to and including June. With a confirmed 350k sales since then, New Horizons is officially the second best selling game.
The game that sits ahead of New Horizons is actually the trifecta of Pokemon Red, Green and Blue which combined account for over 10 million units sold. It is because of the distinction between three games to one that New Horizons is officially the highest selling Single SKU ever in Japan. The previous holder of that title was the original Super Mario Bros. for the Famicom system.
While there currently sits a three-million unit gap between New Horizons and the top spot, Game Data Library noted that it was well within the realm of possibility that the original trio of Pokemon games could be dethroned. With the considerable momentum Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been able to muster, it is very possible it hits the mark soon.
Aiding the push for Animal Crossing: New Horizons' dominance is the still creative and talented playerbase demonstrating amazing abilities in morphing the game to their whims. One of the best examples of this saw a YouTuber team recreate the opening of Pokemon Blue in New Horizons which will likely come up again if the latter takes the top spot.
The game has become enough of a success to even break the boundaries of console allegiances. It was recently announced that Head of Xbox Phil Spencer will appear on Animal Talking, the online New Horizons talk show. So with New Horizons going so far to bring gamers together, its sales likely won't slow down soon.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now on Nintendo Switch.