In June of this year, Nintendo revealed that Animal Crossing: New Horizons had already managed to exceed all of their expectations, surpassing the company's expected lifetime sales in just a bit over a month after the game had officially launched for the Nintendo Switch.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been quite the pleasant surprise for both players and Nintendo, as it is the gift that simply keeps on giving. Just last week, in fact, it was revealed that the critically acclaimed social simulation title had already sold a staggering 20 million copies.
As if that wasn't enough, information shared by Game Data Library has revealed that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the third best-selling game of all time in Japan; trailing behind Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue, as well as Pokémon Gold and Silver.
As revealed by Game Data, Animal Crossing: New Horizons sits in third place with 7.150.000 copies sold, but here's when things get more interesting, since Pokémon Gold & Silver have sold a total of 7.170.000 units in total; meaning that Animal Crossing: New Horizons isn't actually the third, but the second best-selling video game in Japan.
It is also worth mentioning that cummulative sales for Pokémon Red, Pokémon Green, and Pokémon Blue in Japan surpass 10.230.000. What's more, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has only been available for a couple of months, while all of the previously mentioned Pokémon games have been out for over 20 years; with Pokémon Gold & Silver being the last ones released.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons will continue to sell, so it will be interesting to see if it manages to become the best-selling video game in Japan. Also, Game Data's list includes video games for all consoles, so this isn't the third(or second) best-selling Nintendo game in Japan; on the contrary, these are the best-selling games for any console, ever in Japan.
In regards to a single SKU(stock keeping unit), Animal Crossing: New Horizons also managed to dethrone the original Super Mario bros. for the Nintendo Entertainment System(Famicom in Japan), after a very impressive 30 years. Just, wow.
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Animal Crossing: New Horizons is currently available exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.