Animal Crossing: New Horizons is more popular in North America than any Mario or Zelda game in history

When you think about Nintendo, which games come to your mind? Naturally, we think of Super Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Donkey Kong... Yes, Animal Crossing is also somewhere there in the top, but not at a very top of your thoughts.

Well, that doesn't seem to be the case with the American Nintendo fans. Animal Crossing: New Horizons launch in the US was bigger than any Mario or Zelda game ever in the history of those franchises. Animal Crossing: New Horizons sold more units than any Mario/Zelda game at launch and also made more money.

Still, that does not put it at the top, since two games have had a bigger launch; Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Decmber 2018) and Super Smash Bros. Brawl (March 2008) debuted with higher sales in a launch month, according to Venturebeat. Smash games are traditionally popular in the North America region, and this comes as no surprise.

The gaming industry overall saw a massive increase during March in the US, and the current outbreak had a significant influence on that.

"With people in the United States isolating themselves for much of the month, many people obviously turned to safe at-home entertainment. As a result, consumers in the U.S. spent $1.597 billion on gaming hardware, new full games, and accessories plus game cards," says Venturebeat. "That is the most March money the industry has generated in NPD’s reporting since $1.8 billion in 2008."

Sales of consoles are so big that many retails can't keep up with demands, so there's currently a big shortage of Switches in North America in Europe, but as things continue to come back to normal across the world, production and distributions will stabilize and Nintendo assures consumers that demands will be met.