Animal Crossing: New Horizons continues to impress more than six years after its original release. Nintendo has updated its sales figures, confirming that the game has officially surpassed 50 million copies sold worldwide. For a title available exclusively on Nintendo hardware, this is an extraordinary achievement.
Animal Crossing Surpasses 50 Million Sales
According to Nintendo’s latest official sales figures, Animal Crossing: New Horizons had sold 50.29 million copies worldwide as of June 30, 2026. The previous figure, recorded at the end of March, stood at 49.91 million copies. That means the game sold roughly another 380,000 copies in just a few months.
The milestone is impressive not only because of the enormous number itself. Animal Crossing: New Horizons has now joined a very small group of games that have surpassed the 50-million mark in sales. It has also achieved this result while remaining essentially tied to a single console generation.
The game is currently the second best-selling Nintendo Switch title, behind only Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which has sold 71.53 million copies. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate follows in third place with 38.14 million copies sold.
A Success That Began at an Unusual Time
Animal Crossing: New Horizons launched on March 20, 2020, just as the world was entering widespread COVID-19 lockdowns. The timing turned out to be almost perfect for a game centered around creating a peaceful virtual island, decorating a home, collecting items, fishing, socializing with villagers and spending time with friends.
The game quickly attracted audiences far beyond the traditional Nintendo fanbase. Animal Crossing became part of mainstream culture, while New Horizons’ multiplayer features turned virtual islands into places for meetings, parties and all kinds of player-created events.
However, it would be wrong to attribute the game’s success solely to the pandemic. More than six years after launch, sales are still growing. Between March and June 2026 alone, the game added hundreds of thousands of new copies to its lifetime total.
Animal Crossing Has Left Most Nintendo Hits Behind
The 50.29-million figure is more than just a milestone. Animal Crossing: New Horizons now sits well above most of Nintendo’s other major Switch releases.
For comparison, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has sold 38.14 million copies, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has reached 34.06 million, while Super Mario Odyssey stands at 30.8 million.
This puts New Horizons firmly in second place among the best-selling Nintendo Switch games. The gap with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still substantial, however, at more than 21 million copies.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons has also received a second wind thanks to the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. The updated version launched in January 2026 with enhancements designed for Nintendo’s newer console, giving the game another opportunity to attract both returning players and newcomers.
A New Record – But How Far Can It Go?
The 50-million milestone once again demonstrates just how dramatically New Horizons changed the position of the Animal Crossing franchise. Before its release, the series was already well known among Nintendo fans, but it did not have the same commercial reach as Mario or Pokémon.
That has clearly changed. Animal Crossing has become one of Nintendo’s biggest franchises, while New Horizons has established itself as an unprecedented commercial success.
The big question now is whether the game can eventually get closer to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. With a gap of more than 21 million copies, catching Nintendo’s current sales leader will certainly not be easy. However, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is still selling copies more than six years after launch, and the Switch 2 Edition gives it another opportunity to continue growing.
For now, though, surpassing 50 million copies sold is already a historic achievement. Animal Crossing: New Horizons has officially entered the elite group of the best-selling video games of all time — and it has done so while remaining a Nintendo exclusive.
