On March 20, 2020, Nintendo released the fifth installment of the Animal Crossing series: Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The plot is simple: you play as a person who has recently moved to a deserted island and is tasked with developing it from the ground up.
From there, the player is given a lot of freedom, from how they want their island to look to which anthropomorphic animal characters they want living there. These animal characters, called villagers, contribute toward the game’s renown, along with non-playable characters (NPCs) such as Isabelle and K.K. Slider.
Animal Crossing was created by Katsuya Eguchi and Hisashi Nogami in 2001. Since then, five games have been released along with several spin-offs, with New Horizons being the 14th best-selling video game in history.
What’s kept this game in the hearts of so many for so long? Well, it has a lot to do with the joy and comfort people find in the soundtrack, dialogue, and gameplay. Which involves outdoorsy tasks like fishing, bug catching, landscaping, and more.
Animal Crossing falls under a genre of video games called “social simulation games,” which describes those that revolve around digital and fictional social interactions.
In New Horizons, specifically, these social interactions come from the villagers, NPCs like Tom Nook, or real people through online play or on one Nintendo Switch.
This game allows for connection to happen on multiple levels between the player and whoever they want to interact with.
And this kind of connection, brought about by New Horizons’ release, came just when it would be needed most.
In 2020, COVID-19 left the world in a massive, government-mandated lockdown to attempt to slow the spread of the disease. This left many people seeking social interactions with others and missing that companionship.
The lockdown also left a need for a diversion for many due to varied experiences, such as children losing the chance to create typical childhood memories and adults missing milestones like birthday celebrations or holidays.
New Horizons allows for all of those things, though! From in-game birthday celebrations, to hosting holiday gatherings with the villagers, to celebrating accomplishments, like catching a new fish or buying a new bridge.
It is these moments of happiness that become highly valuable to humans, even if merely virtual.
I got New Horizons on March 28, 2020, and it was the first Animal Crossing game I ever owned. I knew little to nothing about the franchise going into it, and I was just excited to play a new game.
I never could have expected the positive emotional impact catching some bugs and fish would have on me all these years later.
It’s allowed me to express myself creatively through interior design and landscaping, but it’s also allowed me to connect with others by playing with friends and family, even if we’re apart.
Many others have found a connection in the community or fandom that the game created. The game even has several Discord servers, which is a social platform that, typically, allows people to direct message each other.
However, in the case of New Horizons, it’s become a space for people to talk, trade, and overall be a part of a space that welcomes them.
These servers, and other social media platforms, allow New Horizons players to share their designs, outfits, and even curated island theme songs with others around the globe.
Even now, in 2026, there is still community and joy to be found within the fandom as the most recent update came out at the beginning of this year.
It seems that Animal Crossing: New Horizons fans have a lot to look forward to as the game continues to evolve to support the true goal of the series: embracing imagination and togetherness.