Looking back at the launch ofÂAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, you would think that the stars had aligned. The game was already massively hyped up, with everyone from kids to grown adults like myself, ready to get back into Tom Nook’s latest entrepreneurial adventure. Pair that up with an incoming pandemic resulting in stay-at-home orders and you have the perfect recipe for a great launch. This ended up being reflected by the game’s sales, which showÂNew HorizonsÂtopping off game sales for March despite launching near the end of the month.According to The NPD Group, a market research group,ÂNew HorizonsÂstole the number one spot fromÂCall of Duty: Modern Warfare. Sales for the year, however, still go toCall of Duty, althoughÂNew HorizonsÂis now in the number two spot on that list. This data still leaves the latestÂAnimal CrossingÂtitle as not only the best-selling in franchise history but the third best launch of a Nintendo game in America, only behindSuper Smash Bros. BrawlÂandÂUltimate.
The report also notes that hardware spending in the U.S has skyrocketed, if you couldn’t tell bythe news of sold-out Switch consoles. Across the board, people are spending more on every single piece of hardware.
Detailed on Twitter by Mat Piscatella, a researcher at The NPD Group, hardware spending grew 63 percent compared to March 2019. Sales for the Switch last month doubled compared to its March 2019 sales, while PS4 and Xbox One both had 25 percent gains. The Switch also set a new record for most units sold in March, topping a previously set record from the console’s launch in March of 2017.
I know that’s a lot of information to digest so here’s the point, boiled down:Animal Crossingis selling like crazy, and everyone and their grandma are buying consoles. It’s some good news, considering that we’ve been talking a lot about the events the coronavirus has canceled. I’m just happy to see everyone taking theadvice of the WHO: stay inside and play some games.
