Animal Crossing: New Horizons had best Japanese debut for a Switch game ever

Animal Crossing: New Horizons sold 1.8 million physical copies in Japan during its first week, according to Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu. This figure does not include digital sales, which, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, are considered to have been strong, giving the game an even bigger boost on the all-time charts. New Horizons‘ first week has been the biggest in terms of copies sold for any Nintendo Switch game in Japan since the release of the system.

Pokémon Sword and Shield and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the previous best-selling Switch games during their first weeks, sold 1.36 million and 1.24 million units, respectively.

Also, thanks to the life sim, the Nintendo Switch console itself had its best week ever in the country, even better than the original launch in 2017. This result has been made possible by the 392,576 Switch systems sold across Japan in just one week, in anticipation of the release of the latest Animal Crossing.

It’s worth noting that Animal Crossing: New Horizons, as recently revealed by Nintendo, wasn’t even meant to be released on Switch when its development started. However, the Japanese label has increasingly believed in the franchise, to the point it launched a mobile version called Pocket Camp that also greatly benefited from New Horizons‘ arrival in stores.