Animal Crossing: New Horizonscontinues 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 thatAnimal Crossing: New Horizonshas sold over 22 millioncopies just months after launch. While that is an undeniably staggering number, it turns out that the game holds a new special honor.
FollowingNintendo’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 ofNew Horizons’total sales which in turn has made it one of the best selling games ever in the country.
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With over 7.5 million sales,Animal Crossing: New Horizonsis now the second highest selling game in the history of the Japanese market. The data came from Twitter user Game Data Library which originally notedNew Horizonsas the third highest selling game closely behindPokemon GoldandSilver. 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 Horizonsis officially the second best selling game.
The game that sits ahead ofNew Horizonsis actually the trifecta ofPokemon Red, GreenandBluewhich combined account for over 10 million units sold. It is because of the distinction between three games to one thatNew Horizonsis officially the highest selling Single SKU ever in Japan. The previous holder of that title was the originalSuper Mario Bros.for the Famicom system.
While there currently sits a three-million unit gap betweenNew Horizonsand the top spot, Game Data Library noted that it was well within the realm of possibility that the original trio ofPokemongames could be dethroned. With the considerable momentumAnimal Crossing: New Horizonshas been able to muster, it is very possible it hits the mark soon.
Aiding the push forAnimal 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 theopening ofPokemon Bluein New Horizonswhich 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 XboxPhil Spencer will appear on Animal Talking, the onlineNew Horizonstalk show. So withNew Horizonsgoing so far to bring gamers together, its sales likely won’t slow down soon.
