Animal Crossing: New Horizons sold more at US launch than any Mario or Zelda since records began
Record smash.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons recorded a bigger US launch in terms of both copies sold and money made than any Mario or Zelda game in history since records began.
Across every Nintendo console, only two Nintendo games have ever had a bigger US launch than Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and both of them were Smash Bros. entries. (The US really, really loves Super Smash Bros.)
Just in its launch month, NPD sales data (via Venturebeat) shows New Horizons has already outsold the lifetime sales of every other Animal Crossing game in the series.
In the US, it's now the third-biggest Nintendo game launch ever behind December 2008's Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii and December 2018's Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for Switch.
The US spent $1.6bn on video games and hardware in March 2020, up by 35 per cent on the same time last year. Hardware sales in particular were up by 63 per cent, as people grabbed consoles before lockdown set in.
If you're playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons at the moment, and you probably are, there's plenty to look forward to this week with the game's big new character and event-stuffed update.