By Joséphine Li

The earliest edition of Animal Crossing in the series of Nintendo games can date back to 2001. The idyllic game where players can design their dream island and create their personal getaway has taken off since its March launch, selling 5 million digital copies in that month alone, according to Nielsen’s SuperData—an organization that analyzes the gaming industry. 

During the pandemic, people have searched for fossils, gone out fishing, collected supplies, even held weddings and bid their coworkers farewell in Animal Crossing.

Last Thursday, the company posted another round of blockbuster earnings, proving its pandemic hot streak far from over—their operating profit is up 428 percent year-on-year to $1.37 billion off revenue of $3.39 billion, with Switch sales up 166 percent in the quarter to $5.68 million systems. Nintendo has shipped 61.44 million Switch consoles, just 470,000 shy of the original Nintendo/Famicom Entertainment System. 

Released last quarter in March, the new Animal Crossing title sold over 10 million copies and brought the cumulative total to 22.4 million units in less than half a year, second only to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (26.74 million), which took three years to achieve that figure. 

The findings suggest that months after its release, people are still flocking to buy Nintendo’s Switch game consoles. Nintendo sold about 5.7 million devices from April through June, marking a significant year-over-year increase. 

More than 97,000 children in the US tested positive in last two weeks of July

Animal Crossing: New Horizon’s phenomenal success has continued to be a boost for the company. The game, which runs on Switch, is set on a soothing virtual island utopia and allows players to go bug catching, fossil hunting, fishing, frolicking with their friends on the beach and meeting various anthropomorphic animals. The game has been in high demand since people around the world began staying at home because of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the most recent quarter, Nintendo sold 10.6 million copies of the game. The company said in a statement that the sales of this title remain strong, without any loss of momentum and this game was their bestseller this quarter. 

The title Animal Crossing was such a hit that it also contributed greatly to the overall software sales growth. 

The Switch, first released three years ago, sold out earlier this year on various websites thanks to the fact that customers are scrambling to find new types of home entertainment due to the current situation. 

The Kyoto-based multinational company ran into supply problems with the Switch this spring, as factories in China were shut down. These closures triggered some component shortages and slowed output at their factories in Vietnam. Demand for Nintendo’s new adventure game was so much higher than the forecasts. 

As a result, the global supply has been unable to keep up since release. “The lingering effects of this component shortage in the market are still an inconvenience to our consumers, but as with the Nintendo Switch family of systems, we will continue to work to ensure a sufficient amount of shipments for the holiday season.”The company says in its statement, and now, “The overall production situation has almost recovered.” the company said. 

Nintendo has also taken the opportunity to tease its pipeline of games. It plans to release a new title, “Pikmin 3 Deluxe,” this fall, as well as offer some new content for Pokémon players. 

Last month, Nintendo released another new game, “Paper Mario: The Origami King,” the company stated that they will keep working to keep the platform active with new titles and by strengthening sales of popular titles that have already been released.