by: James A. Barnes II

While Coronavirus has been the infection of the season(s), an entirely less damaging infection caught on during the latter half of initial lockdowns last year, and it came in the form of small creatures, fruit trees, and colored Switch Lites.

We are, of course, talking about the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons which, from its release date back at the end of March last year, quickly led to a record-breaking tripling of Nintendo’s profits. Within mere months, our favorite anthropomorphic animals saw Switches selling out everywhere as already stretched Nintendo manufacturing struggled to keep up with the onslaught.

Now that the most pressing infection among us is clearing, we’re all left with one crucial question – why exactly did Animal Crossing become the game that saved so many of us during the pandemic? 

Of course, for those of us who grew up with the original Animal Crossing, this was already a much-anticipated release, but it certainly didn’t have the power to transform Nintendo’s entire infrastructure or fuel a switch (excuse the pun…) that was largely behind as many as one in five of us picking up a console during our time at home. To understand that phenomenon, we need to delve a little deeper into the whys and wherefores of how exactly Animal Crossing became a Coronavirus savior topped only by key workers and Zoom calls. 

Reason 1: A Timely Release

Call it good luck or a sixth sense, but a large part of New Horizons’ success comes down to little more than a timely release. After all, the game was in devs for eight years, and the March 20th release data was cited before Coronavirus was even a sniff on the horizon. 

Lockdowns that started on the 16th March 2020 (just four days before that much-heralded release) were nothing more than a stroke of good luck, at least for Nintendo. With kids suddenly out of school and many non-office workers entirely unable to fulfill their roles, a nation grinding to a halt needed something to fill the time. And, what better than a game that quite literally allows you to switch off and focus on harvesting fruit trees for all your village friends? 

Reason 2: A Happy Haven

Release data aside, the joy of Animal Crossing is infectious, and it was precisely what we all needed at a time when day-to-day life was quite frankly exhausting. That first lockdown, especially, brought a great deal of performance anxiety and brain fog as an onslaught of ever-changing information hit our screens. 

Enter New Horizons, which is very much an example of gaming at its best in that it’s pure escapism. Whether you’re chopping trees or harvesting fruit, you can do it all with minimal brain power, and still feel satisfied.

The anthropomorphic characters also played a hugely incidental role in the happy haven that New Horizons became. After all, it’s impossible to feel too bad about life when you’ve got a happy dog in a raincoat smiling up at you. 

Reason 3: A Social Savior

It’s fair to say that the social aspect of New Horizons has also played a huge part at a time when individuals living alone were quite literally cut off from every interaction with the exception of their weekly shop delivery driver (and even that was dodgy when lockdown first hit!) 

Enter a fresh-from-the-factory game that quite literally centers around socialization, both with cute village associates and with other players across an online portal. The ability to visit the islands of friends especially helped to cement Animal Crossing’s place in the lockdown hall of fame, driving some people to host birthday parties and even cancelled weddings in the game. Furthering that, the ability to meet new friends and visit their islands has driven countless new friendships and romances at a time when the prospects for meeting people in the real world were stripped away. 

This social gaming handle so early on in lockdown opened the doors for a range of other game-based social focuses, with friendship groups who originally chose to communicate through Animal Crossing diversifying to platforms such as Skribble.io, Houseparty, and even www.bestuklivecasinos.co.uk to replace meetups and game nights in true style. Forget Zoom quizzes, these social experiences provided a far more realistic taster of what we would’ve been doing if lockdown hadn’t hit. And, we largely have New Horizons to thank for that. 

Reason 4: Fun That Never Ends

While we weren’t always in the headspace to be productive during the first lockdown, or any of the subsequent ones if we’re honest, most of us did have a lot of free time on our hands. Few things are better than games for filling time without adding pressure, but with endless days ahead of us, most of us started and completed a fair few games in quick succession and we needed something with a little more staying power.

Admittedly, there are plenty of never-ending games, especially in the online sphere, and options like Destiny or World of Warcraft definitely saw something of a surge around this time. But, few games provide never-ending fun and challenge like New horizons. After all, unlike shooters that tend to get pretty samey if you play them day-in, day-out, there’s always something new to work towards on Animal Crossing, be that terraforming or just a new outfit at The Able Sister’s shop. All else aside, it was probably this ongoing sense of purpose that really gave New Horizons the edge that saw it becoming an undeniable cure for what was arguably the most difficult period that this gaming generation has seen. 

A Final Word

Animal Crossing has always been a nostalgic game for the millennials who played it when they were younger, but New Horizons has kickstarted a brand new Animal Crossing age. Now, young and older gamers alike have a love for this game like few others, and our betting is that New Horizons, and any subsequent releases, will continue to hold its place in our hearts even pre-pandemic.