Animal Crossing: New Horizons Brought Players Together When They Needed It Most
A home away from home.
Where were you on March 20, 2020? You may not be able to remember the exact answer, but you can probably narrow it down to “inside.” By that point, Covid-19 had been officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, and stay-at-home orders were being put in place across the globe.
It was an incredibly stressful time that had us all longing for sunshine and company. It’s no surprise that a game about an island getaway launching in those circumstances was a hit, but no one could have predicted just how much of a phenomenon it would become.
In a grim way, Animal Crossing: New Horizons arrived at exactly the right time. With its entire pool of potential players forced to stay away from other people, New Horizons offered not just a needed distraction, but a way to socialize that was considerably more exciting than sitting on Zoom all day with your loved ones. Providing something so crucial right when players needed it helped catapult New Horizons to astounding success, making it one of the most talked-about (and best-selling) games of the year.
New Horizons offered players a much-needed respite at a stressful time.
When New Horizons launched, I was moving across the country. Given the state of the world, what had been planned as a slow-paced drive with copious sightseeing stops turned into a sprint, one where I stopped only to eat at drive-throughs and check into whatever eerily empty motel was closest when I needed sleep. My only real respite was the hour I spent each night playing New Horizons, when the fear gripping the world gave way to the sense of calm that came from shaking trees and fishing with my animal neighbors. For myself and many others, New Horizons was an oasis, one that provided a sense of relief the physical world couldn’t offer.
New Horizons’ success can’t just be chalked up to good timing, though. Animal Crossing had already grown from a niche life sim to a Nintendo mainstay since the release of 2012’s Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and its developers spent the intervening years refining and evolving its chill gameplay. Some of those changes, like the ability to alter your village’s terrain, were controversial, but they were largely successful in making New Horizons the series’ most approachable entry yet.
New Horizons became an online meeting place for isolated players.
The fact that it launched on the Switch was also a boon. Nintendo’s hybrid console already had a massive userbase, even among players who’d never spent much time gaming before. That worked perfectly for New Horizons and its emphasis on just hanging out. Because of the game’s wide adoption, New Horizons’ online features ended up connecting players to a degree that previous installments hadn’t, no matter how much of a pain it could be to visit a friend’s island.
The specifics of how you spent your time in New Horizons — the neighbors you met, how you decorated your house, all the times you saved Gulliver from being swept out to sea — may not stick in your memory, but trading furniture and vibing on the virtual beach with friends likely does. Countless stories grew out of New Horizons’ online mode, from aggressive turnip traders traveling from island to island for the best prices to actor Elijah Wood making headlines for visiting a fan’s island and being a perfect guest.
With the Switch 2 around the corner, the next Animal Crossing game is almost certainly on the way. It might be impossible for Nintendo to top New Horizons, at least when it comes to how much the game means to players, but its release is sure to be an event. Whatever comes next will likely be an improvement in a mechanical sense, but Animal Crossing: New Horizons connected players in a way that few games ever have or will.
