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Is ACNH dying?

I wouldn't say its dying exactly. But people are definitely getting bored and not playing anymore because of the lack of content, which I 100% can understand.

Considering it's over a year old now and there are people who still play it almost daily and enjoy it is awesome. And also Nintendo is still putting out updates. I would consider it to be dying if Nintendo stopped updates completely.
I still play quite often. Not everyday though currently since I just finished my island, and I want to leave it as it is for a bit before I flatten it and start my new theme.

The game really was the most popular during the start of the pandemic, when the game also happened to be coming out. So it was all anyone was playing while people were stuck in their homes. I think since so many people were playing it so much back then, it's now becoming kinda stale for most, but as I said, I don't think it's dying.
 
I'm sure there's way fewer players than there were on release; I've definitely noticed less people joining the forum now than there were last year. But I joined the community in 2018 so I'm used to the game being "dead". Honestly, popularity really doesn't matter when it comes to games since it's not like the game stops existing when a certain amount of people stop playing it (except MMOs I suppose). As long as there's still a small community to trade with, I wouldn't worry. Perhaps a lack of players will result in less frequent updates, but since the only money they'd actually get from updates is from Nintendo Online subscriptions, and the updates don't require multiplayer anyway, there's probably not much of a financial incentive to begin with.
 
Even though I missed the initial hype of ACNH when it debuted last March apart from what I saw on social media from those playing and having no idea what it was other than a video game I feel that the overall the game is still very much loved. Since becoming a fan of the game a few months ago I've found an abundance of resources online (including this very active forum) to help inspire my own island from YouTube channels that do speed builds to Instagram accounts promoting design codes. Every day I scroll through or watch a video and there's always something new to see which I think goes to show that ACNH is still very much loved by fans who have been playing since last year as well as help garner new fans like myself to start playing. That to me is a testament to how well the game has done overall considering it doesn't really have an end goal like other video games, although I'm sure if another Animal Crossing game is released in the near future then New Horizons will quieten down more as fans move on to check out the latest video game in the Animal Crossing family.
 
The game is going to get more essential updates, the problem is Nintendo is TOO SLOW, and a lot of the stuff that we're waiting for really would have been better off releasing last year. Overall though, I think people just got hella burnt out from playing so much last year, like honestly, 2020 felt like the absolute peak for the AC community, and I don't see it ever returning to that state until a new game comes around. Not to mention the economy in this game went to all-hell REALLY fast due to bugs and exploits.

A lot of people will return when bigger updates make their way into the game, but it's also worth noting that there are many more games out there somewhat similar to AC than what we used to have in the past during say, the New Leaf or City Folk era. When people get burnt out from this, there are many other similar games now they can just move onto in the meantime.
 
That will depend on your definition of "dying." People may have different opinions on how they define it as such.

Is the hype dead? Obviously, it died a long time ago. Everyone already moved on to the next big thing.
Is the community dead? This community is still alive. Otherwise, we won't even discuss this.
Did the player populace dwindle? Like any other games, this will always happen no matter what.
Should I worry if the game is dying? If you're playing this alone, absolutely not.

Honestly, the game will only become "dead" if you stopped playing. For my case, the answer is no. Because I am still actively playing.
 
lemoncrossing said:
I feel this so much. It feels emptier than the previous AC games— while it’s got great items and customization, I’m still confused about why we can’t upgrade our shops. There’s pretty much no progress to be made after unlocking K.K., and it’s just kind of sad to see. I think that’s what drives people away... both old fans & new ones.
Click to expand...
This is the one thing I liked about the other games. The progression of your town. You got to watch places grow the more you played and contributed. You can still progress your island by terraforming and decorating, but the feeling is kind of different when there isn't any acknowledgment from the AI who live there.

They may never bring back these things that we're thinking about like building upgrades, new shops, ect. But if they do, it's more of a waiting game and less about the time you invested on your island. I still play the game and like it, but I can't lie, the game does feel less alive (to me) because of this.
 
It's funny how everyone is talking about people not playing anymore because the "bandwagon" hype has died down.
I've been hyped with my best friend about the Switch AC since the console came out and I've been eagerly wishing for it everytime a Nintendo Direct was taking place. I literally cried when I saw the "Animal Crossing 2019" announced during the september direct.
After that, the E3 trailer aired and I was even more hyped, I remember watching it 10 times a day, I really liked that time period.
But then the game came out... me and my friend played for about a month, and then nothing. I guess we came back one or two times to try and landscape our island but it's just so tedious and it's not our favorite part of the game.
I was shocked when I saw that they removed every single furniture set, which were really important to me because I loved collecting them and I had already planned my house with them in mind.

Animal Crossing is my favorite franchise ever, and to see me not liking this game really makes me feel bad.
It feels like a Sims 2 Castaway kinda spin-off or even an early access game.
This game was tailored for people who loved landscaping during ACNL, but to me AC wasn't that at all.
I played this game to have cute interactions with my villagers, of which there are none in ACNH, to do my daily cafe shift, to visit the T&T emporium and look at Gracie's collections, or to farm bells at the island while meeting new people.
I never really cared about landscaping since I couldn't do it, I'm really bad at it, sadly.

The fact that the game got released with no holidays, no diving and one Timmy and Tommy update (which is still the case) is still surreal to me today.
I really trusted them with the updates, like okay sure the game will live longer and the hype will go on, I'm all for that. But except from the summer one, none of them were good to me. Like I'm really trying to understand what are they working on? I mean, I'm all for companies not crunching their devs but like so many games are releasing huge updates in the span of months and all we get is a few furniture? Like I would genuinely like to know what is happening behind the scenes! I don't want to come off as mean or anything of the sort I'm just really sad that the game I wished for during years disappointed me in so many aspects.
 
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Hat' said:
It's funny how everyone is talking about people not playing anymore because the "bandwagon" hype has died down.
I've been hyped with my best friend about the Switch AC since the console came out and I've been eagerly wishing for it everytime a Nintendo Direct was taking place.
Click to expand...

The difference is that you are not a hype bandwagon player. You were a previous fan eagerly waiting to play the next installment.
 
JKDOS said:
The difference is that you are not a hype bandwagon player. You were a previous fan eagerly waiting to play the next installment.
Click to expand...
Oh I know, I just wanted to say that the game isn't less popular just because the bandwagon players left, a lot of loyal fans of the franchise also got bored because of the lack of things to do other than landscaping.
 
Hat' said:
Oh I know, I just wanted to say that the game isn't less popular just because the bandwagon players left, a lot of loyal fans of the franchise also got bored because of the lack of things to do other than landscaping.
Click to expand...
I know I'm gonna look stupid for asking this, but what's a bandwagon player?
 
Koopadude100 said:
I know I'm gonna look stupid for asking this, but what's a bandwagon player?
Click to expand...
New horizons sold more copies than all the previous entries combined.
A lot of those players are first timers to the series. They started playing because of lockdown and seeing so many others excited for the game.

It's natural that those players wouldn't stick around too long since it was new to them and they don't feel the same passion as we do.

So while I don't know I agree with the term, it would be those people.
 
I am not a Hard Core. I Play my games Like Pokemon Sword and To Snap. I Sometime Do not do everything as i sometime do not Like the Pokemon or just take my time with it at my own speed. Sometime i feel like a Bandwagon player as i did not catch it all or Jump Onto in a DLC on my 2nd copy of Shield with in a year time. I Own it and i do log into it do download event pokemon or times in my games. ACNH game is the game at get free update and i got a friend here name Jhine7 at help get me back into the swing of Getting items and saying hello to him.
 
Maybe the trading boards aren’t that active as people have already obtained the items and villagers they needed for their island. That is probably the case. As for New Horizons dying, I think it has less to do with the game and more to do with the fact that forums are dying in general. Less people are using forums while social media becomes more popular. Although this is sad, you cannot deny this fact. It’s a shame that forums aren’t as popular as they used to be. I’ve seen countless Facebook posts about New Horizons on Animal Crossing groups. It’s still very much popular, but of course there are people that don’t play anymore. Everyone gets bored of a video game sometime, it is inevitable.
 
I feel like the hype was dead in autumn, there are definitely more regular players now but overall I'd say we reached a constant where only the most dedicated players still play. The first year has been somewhat underwhelming in the end, with New Leaf you had like 30 days between buildings and upgrades and I don't feel like I got bored that easily. In New Horizons you're like done with buildings before autumn and right now the future doesn't seem that exciting.
 
Croconaw said:
Maybe the trading boards aren’t that active as people have already obtained the items and villagers they needed for their island. That is probably the case. As for New Horizons dying, I think it has less to do with the game and more to do with the fact that forums are dying in general. Less people are using forums while social media becomes more popular. Although this is sad, you cannot deny this fact. It’s a shame that forums aren’t as popular as they used to be. I’ve seen countless Facebook posts about New Horizons on Animal Crossing groups. It’s still very much popular, but of course there are people that don’t play anymore. Everyone gets bored of a video game sometime, it is inevitable.
Click to expand...
A Sad Truth indeed. I Love the Forms as i got to meet nice folks and allow me to jump in and out without anything in return it feel like. Some of my Villagers i got from other users and the items too. But I Lost Contact with them in the games or on this site. I do catch them online in other games or something. But i happy for there help and wait to see if they return. I Just happy a friend Jhine7 remain online for me to say hello and if he got the item at catch my eye.
 
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