While there were some concerns about COVID-19 resulting in decreased sales, it did not hurt DOOM Eternal and possibly helped Animal Crossing: New Horizon.
The quirky life simulator was able to sell a mind boggling 5 million digital copies in March, a feat Superdata Research says sets a new record for monthly digital game sales.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons sold more digital units in a single month (5.0M) than any console game in history. The Nintendo-published title broke the console record for monthly digital game sales previously held by Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII. Animal Crossing: New Horizons also roughly matched the first-month digital sales of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Pokémon Sword and Shield put together. The game’s combination of social features and a relaxing setting likely appealed to individuals stuck at home. Closures of brick and mortar stores also meant that a higher share of consumers purchased the game digitally compared to past Switch titles.
SuperData
If the statement above doesn’t highlight just how impressive that actually is, the previous two Animal Crossing games were able to achieve lifetime sales of 10 million and even super titles like God of War barely made it to that 10 million mark. At the rate it is going it will probably be the highest selling in the franchise, which will hopefully result in Nintendo sticking with the fantastic support thus far.
