Animal Crossing also beat Zelda, Pokemon, Mario and Splatoon
A few times a year, Nintendo updates their top-selling title list and it’s kind of a treat to wake up to.
The Switch is one of the best-selling pieces of hardware in recent years and first-party Nintendo titles are extremely popular: so it’s very insightful to get cold hard data and see how they all stack up against each other. Would you have guessed thatAnimal Crossingwould have beaten out multipleMariofranchises,Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,Zelda: Breath of the Wild, severalPokemongames andSplatoon 2? You win a cookie!
Nintendo reported todaythat as of June 03, 2025,Animal Crossing: New Horizonsis now the second-best selling Switch game in history: clocking in at 22.40 million units. That puts it squarely above its third place rival,Super Sash Bros. Ultimate, which has managed to push 19.99 million units. Note thatSmash Ultimatecame out in December of 2018, whileNew Horizonslaunched just a few months ago. Still towering in first isMario Kart 8 Deluxeat 26.74 million units: I bet Nintendo was happy they ported it from Wii U.Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Editionalso hit 1.32 million units since May andClubhouse Gamesreached 1.03 units just in the month of June.
So why wasNew Horizonssuch a success? The pandemic definitely helped its prospects as folks looked for a way to connect in a simple, delightful way. It arrived at the perfect time to become part of the zeitgeist, as several other big-name titles pushed their release date further into 2020.
SwordandShieldisn’t a slouch either, as the 18.22 million units it managed to muster also puts it ahead ofDiamondandPearl‘s 17.76 units, makingSwordandShieldthe third-best sellingPokemongame ever behindGoldandSilverandRed/Blue/Green.It’s a good year for Nintendo.
