Nintendo Switch sales dip shows how crucial the Animal Crossing franchise is for the company

According to recent reports, Nintendo Switch has sold over 85 million units but digital sales are in constant decline and it might be because of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

The fifth entry in the long-running franchise has been a massive success for Nintendo but is clearly on a decline because of a lack of updates.

Games industry analyst Piers Harding Rolls shared data insinuating how sales of Nintendo Switch Lite have gone down while the regular Switch continues to do well.

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Animal Crossing behind falling digital sales?

Digital sales in 2020 saw an unexampled rise because of the ongoing pandemic. New Horizons came out in March and players were quick to empty the virtual shelves.

Animal Crossing did extremely well last year when players were purchasing downloaded versions of Animal Crossing at premium prices.

Nintendo’s digital sales revenue also down compared to last year when a lot of gamers were buying download versions of premium priced Animal Crossing Note: 1st party digital revenue and actual Switch storefront sales are obvs interrelated but not the same thing pic.twitter.com/xE1VooIJoz

— Piers Harding-Rolls (@PiersHR) August 5, 2021

The sell-through of the Lite console has been on a constant decline. Now, sell through is the amount of units that are sold to the retailer to sell to consumers.

The data suggests that the sell through for Lite has been declining, while it has been increasing exponentially for the regular Switch.

Lite is a great console and has a cheaper price tag too, but the regular Switch is more reliable and has a nice ring to it.

Lack of updates for Animal Crossing: New Horizons is for sure the reason behind the declining sales rates. The title completed a year in the gaming fraternity but has been pretty sale ever since.

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Doug Bowser reveals Animal Crossing will get more updates in the future

Animal Crossing patrons have been waiting for a massive update for a really long time now. Everyone hoped E3 in June would put an end to this dry run. However, Nintendo had unique plans.

Nintendo didn't mention Animal Crossing: New Horizons even once, which naturally upset many fans.

Nintendo released update 1.11.0 that reintroduced the Fireworks event to the game and added a few new seasonal events and corresponding items. Dataminers have found evidence of 37 new items, including 12 new Halloween items which will be introduced during Fall.

However, if the reports are to be believed, the next Animal Crossing update will roll out in November, which is a long time from now. However, rumors also suggest that the next Nintendo Direct could take place in September and will be the perfect time for Nintendo to announce a new update for Animal Crossing.